Understanding the drivers of fleet emission reduction activities of the German car manufacturers

AbstractThe current mobility system, dominated by fossil fuel powered automobiles, is under increasing pressure due to its environmental impact. To address this issue there is a need for a transition of the system towards one that is more sustainable, including the introduction of car technologies that allow a decrease in fuel consumption and the substitution of fossil fuels as primary energy source. Due to the stability of the current automotive industry and the dominance of the internal combustion engine technology, it is expected that the incumbent firms and their activities will play a crucial role in the transition. Policy makers have therefore introduced a variety of policies to encourage the industry to provide suitable solutions. We have conducted a micro-level analysis of how the three main German car manufacturers have changed their activities in the field of low emission vehicle technologies in response to national/international events and policy making. Our analysis suggests that policy makers only have limited influence on the type of disruptive solution that is chosen by these individual companies and that activities related to solutions that were not familiar to the individual car manufacturer were mainly induced by internal or external champions. Still, while the existence of regulatory policies allowed such activities to succeed, on its own it only encouraged the industry to work on incremental solutions based upon the knowledge already possessed