An architectural analysis of green vehicles - Possibilities of technological, architectural and firm diversity

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This paper applies the analytical framework of product architectures and design-based comparative advantages to the case of green vehicles, or low carbon automobiles which has potentials for capturing significant portions of the future market. First, the paper explains concepts of architectures, capabilities and their fits. Second, this framework is applied to the case of futuristic products, including green vehicles, which have to overcome their weaknesses in critical functions, critical components and critical links among them for future market acceptance. Third, we provide a preliminary analysis on architectural patterns of eight types of potential green vehicles. The results indicate their architectural diversity caused partly by their technological diversity. Finally, based on the hypothesis of architecture-capability fit, we predict that the architectural diversity of green vehicles may in turn result in diversity across firms or countries which take leading roles in different types of green vehicles, causing their intra-industrial trade. © 2017 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.