Patterns of green innovation in the automotive industry: empirical evidence from OECD countries 1990-2018

The aim of the paper is to identify patterns of specialisation in different “green” technologies in the automobile industry. The paper focuses on OECD countries over the last 30 years and analyses the role of systems of innovation in spurring and directing green innovation patterns in the industry, testing which systemic factors drive the detected trends of green specialisation. The study builds upon a large panel dataset based on green patent data in OECD countries from 1990 to 2018, which allow to depict green specialisation trends for three automotive technologies: green internal combustion engine (“brownish”), hybrid (“greenish”), electric and fuel cell vehicles (“green”). The study reveals that only Japan shows a persistent specialisation in all the three automotive technological solutions and few countries (Italy, France, Sweden, South Korea and USA) are catching up in the cleaner technological domains from 2008 onwards. The majority of the OECD countries display persistent negative levels of specialisation in all the three technological areas. The econometric analysis, based on a multinomial logit model, shows that the greening of the automotive industry is led both by “economies of specialisation” through private R&D investments, and by “learning economies” triggered by economic policies oriented towards sustainability goals. The complementarity of the two factors highlights the complexity of the technological and environmental transition and calls for a systemic approach.