Sub-themes: Market regulations; CAFE and CO2 regulations; trade policies; FDIs; Consumer’s behavior and future automobile markets; Autonomous driving; industrial policies; battery regulations; new mobilities - car sharing / car pooling; ecobonus and demand subsidies; ecoscores; ...
All the current technology transformations are driven by regulations and state policies: without CO2 regulations OEMs do not increase the sales of EVs; without subsidies for consumers there is no market for EVs; without ambitious industrial policies there is no battery industry to make EVs; without specific authorizations and legislations there are no testing or implementation of autonomous vehicles; without policies that regulate the production, collection and use of data there are no connected cars, and depending on these policies some business models can be viable while others will not; without dedicated transport policies and regulations that promote shared mobility it is difficult to imagine any significant change in country/city mobility patterns; and without regulations to structure the development of Circular Economy (EPR, end-of-life vehicle rules, recycling and remanufacturing initiatives, eco-design, digital product passport) there will be no shift towards less linear auto-economies. It is also clear that the current Chinese hegemony on electric vehicles has been the result of several successful policies and regulations geared towards New Energy Vehicles production, market and supply chain.
Papers in this stream could analyse these policies and regulations and how they transform the automotive industry towards decarbonised smart mobility, but also how they raise new challenges and issues in terms of social disruptions, uneven development and contradictory outcomes. They could explore the processes that shape the emergence and implementation of these policies and regulations, such as the role of lobbies, of different types of expert knowledge, and the changes in political coalitions. They could investigate the concrete outcomes of these policies and regulations on CO2 emissions, transport and mobility patterns, market structures, competition between companies and countries, trade and value chains. Of particular interest will be contributions on the topic of “just transition” and how the potential negative consequences of fast electrification on labour, on communities and territories threatened by deindustrialisation, and on how different social groups are taken into account by these policies and regulations.
Public policies and regulations also play a central role in promoting new mobility services that can be part of the process of electrification. We welcome papers that analyse the development of Mobility as a Service (ride-hailing, ridesharing, carsharing, bikesharing, scooter-sharing) and the role played by cities and regions in shaping the transition from ownership to usership.
A special focus will be dedicated this year to trade policies and the geopolitical challenge represented by the return of protectionism driven by Chinese exports of cars, batteries and auto-parts, by US tariffs, and by the generalized departure from multilateralism in trade triggered by these new developments. We welcome papers that focus on these new trade policies, on their connection with industrial policies and the development of new technologies/industries, on the role played by the automotive industry and its representatives (lobbies, CEOs), and by trade unions and labor representatives in shaping this new geopolitical order, and also on the new wave of bilateral free trade and investment agreements (EU-Mercosur, EU-India, US-India, US-EU (in negotiation)…) that are in the process of re-organizing trade and value chains.
