The electric vehicle sector in Brazil, India, and South Africa: Are there green windows of opportunity?

Abstract

Abstract The shift to electric mobility is driving disruptive transformations in the automotive sector worldwide. It poses significant but different opportunities and challenges to incumbents and latecomers at both the firm and country levels. China’s green industrial policy has facilitated its rapid catching up and even leapfrogging in some domains of electromobility. This article asks whether the exploitation of this window of opportunity can be replicated in other latecomer countries. Accordingly, it provides a comparative analysis of the automotive green window of opportunity in Brazil, India, and South Africa, three emerging economies with long established but structurally different automotive industries. To do so, it examines domestic preconditions, policy and enterprise responses, and preliminary industrial development outcomes. Although all the three countries face constraints in replicating China’s relative success, the article shows how green opportunities and threats are unequally divided between the three countries.