Partnerships in the battery electric vehicle industry

Abstract

The complementarity of assets between various types of actors can lead to faster progress of battery electric vehicle (BEV) technology, which is required to move towards a more sustainable mobility system. This complementarity can be realized through interaction in the form of various partnerships. This study accordingly set out to study various partnerships in the BEV industry to identify the patterns and trends in BEV partnerships. This study focused on the period 1990 - 2011 because the Californian Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate introduced in 1990 is considered as the first global incentive in the transition towards cleaner vehicles. Via the worldwide newspaper database LexisNexis data on partnerships were collected, explored and analyzed. The results indicated that in the transition towards zero emission vehicles, the rivalry between the BEV and the fuel cell vehicle (FCV) has played an important role in boosting BEV technology. Particularly when the automotive industry’s emphasis laid on FCV developments, new entrants saw opportunities to enter the BEV industry and achieved technological breakthroughs of BEV technology in partnership with established suppliers. Moreover, although battery development was dominant throughout the entire period of study, a large increase in partnerships aimed at the development of complementary BEV infrastructure was observed in the most recent years. Together with a shift from mostly R&D focused partnerships in the 1990s towards an increasing number of production focused partnerships since the late 2000s, this suggests that BEVs are nearing commercial viability.