Innovation, competition, and tariffs: insights from EV value chains across batteries, vehicles, and charging infrastructure

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

The transportation sector is experiencing rapid technological change toward low-carbon emissions through electrification. However, a successful transition faces increasing pressure from tariffs, competition, and regulation. In response, governments have introduced a range of policies to support domestic battery industries, accelerate EV adoption, and expand public charging networks. However, those efforts often failed to achieve the long-term stability needed for innovation and adoption. This panel brings together four papers that rethink the elements of transformative and resilient policy designs. The first paper uses patent citation network analysis to understand knowledge flows within the EV battery technology to extract insights on effective targeting of domestic industrial policies. The second paper investigates the effects of a broad portfolio of policy instruments, such as performance standards and R&D grants, on cross-national, firm-level EV-related innovations. The third paper uncovers how within-industry and cross-industry competition can have opposing effects on the operational reliability of EV charging infrastructure as a supplementary service, and describes how existing policy might fail to reach the communities most in need of quality improvement and maintenance. The fourth paper investigates the effect of US EV subsidies and trade policies on short-term and long-term changes in the volume of automobiles manufactured, electric vehicle sales, and consumer and manufacturer welfare across countries. This panel brings together different disciplinary perspectives from economics, policy analysis, public administration, environmental management, and engineering systems. The authors deploy a range of methods and theoretical perspectives to complement analyses of high-resolution datasets from patents to economic data to machine learning predictions. The authors represent institutional diversity, gender balance, and a mix of early-career and senior scholars.

Policy Area

• Natural Resource, Energy, and Environmental Policy

Secondary Policy Area

• Innovations in Science and Technology

Chair

• Omar Isaac Asensio, Georgia Institute of Technology

Discussants

• Fang Zhang, Tsinghua University

• Myriam Gregoire-Zawilski, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Organizer

• Yifan Liu, Georgia Institute of Technology

Individual Presentations

• Technology-smart industrial policy for batteries: Insights from intra-technology knowledge flow analysis - Presenting Author: Anurag Panda, ETH Zurich; Non-Presenting Co-Author: André Hemmelder; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Tobias S Schmidt, ETH Zurich

• Driving Innovation: The Policy Tools Powering Electric Vehicle Technological Inventions - Presenting Author: Jingni Zhang, Syracuse University; Non-Presenting Co-Author: David C. Popp, Syracuse University

• Why is EV Charging So Unreliable? The Role of Competition in Supplementary Services - Presenting Author: Yifan Liu, Georgia Institute of Technology; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Omar Isaac Asensio, Georgia Institute of Technology

• The effect of US environmental and trade policies on the global electric vehicle market - Presenting Author: Luke Michael Heeney, Massachusetts Institute of Technology