How public policies shape the industry outcome? A comparative analysis of the regions in United States, China, and Europe about Electric Vehicles industry

Abstract:

1. Short introduction

Even with regulatory pressure mounting, many incumbent original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in established automotive markets such as Europe and the United States are losing out to competitors from emerging regions such as China in offering Electric Vehicles (EV). Several persistent challenges constrain the growth of the EV industry. These include technical bottlenecks, inadequate infrastructure, suboptimal user experiences, and incentive misalignment. We study the impact of public policy on the sales of EV in three main regions: United States, China, and the Europe.

Research Questions
The core question: “How do public policies shape industry outcomes in EV industry among United States, China, and Europe?”

Sub-questions:

• Do different regions adopt distinct types or quantities of public policies? And how do their strategic priorities differ?

• How do policy priorities differ among the three regions when targeting various stages of the vehicle development lifecycle?

• How do regional policies impact industry outcomes(such as EV sales)? Are the effects of policy consistent across regions, or do they vary significantly?

Hypotheses:

• H1: Public policy types and priorities vary significantly across

• United States, China, and Europe, reflecting distinct strategic

focuses and stakeholder influences.

• H2: Policy priorities among regions vary significantly across

  different stages of the vehicle development lifecycle, reflecting

  distinct national industrial strategies and market conditions.

• H3: Overall, compared to Europe and the United States, China’s policies feature more specific measures and a stronger emphasis on time-bound execution as target. Additionally, China places

  greater focus on supply- and demand-related policies.

• H4: Public policies significantly impact EV sales across regions, with the four policy instruments (environmental, supply-side, demand-side, and geopolitical) exerting varying degrees of influence at different stages of the vehicle development lifecycle.

2. Research design and methods

We analyzed 913 different policies divided into four types: (1) environmental policies, (2) supply-side policies, (3) demand-side policies, and (4) geopolitical policies. To further refine this classification, we applied policy instrument framework as main four types, then further breaking down these four types into seventeen detailed categories.

2.1 Research significance and innovations

This study makes several significant contributions:

1. Cross-regional comparative analysis: It conducts an in-depth

   investigation of the design, implementation, and outcomes of

   policy instruments.

2. Framework development: It develops a comprehensive analytical

   framework integrating policy instrument theory with SMART

   principle.

2.2 Data collection

The quantitative data primarily focuses on national-level EV policies from the United States, China and Europe, spanning from 2001 to 2024 drawing from various regional government websites. A total of 913 policy samples were selected.

2.3 Methods

To evaluate and analyze EV policy texts, we employ two methods: content analysis and a quantitative evaluation model. Based on the results of the content analysis, we use quantitative evaluation model to examine the impact of public policy on EV sales.

2.4 Model settings