Varieties of State-Societal Relationship: Environmentally Friendly Auto Technology Advancement in the United States and Japan

Abstract

According to an IEA World Energy Outlook survey, consumption of oil by transport in 2000 increased from around 44 percent in 1990 to nearly 55 percent of total production in OECD countries.¹ The transport sector is also responsible for most greenhouse gas emissions. These energy security and environmental pollution issues are consequently placing national governments and automaking industries under social and political pressure to improve vehicular energy efficiency and search for cleaner energy alternatives for the transport sector. The rapid progress of environmentally friendly auto technology (EFAT) over the last decade has thus led to the transition of the diesel-dominated car industry to an EFAT market economy.² However, technological breakthroughs have not been adequate to diffuse the technology and enlarge the vehicle market. If EFAT’s price and performance were sufficiently competitive, markets would be created by the so-called invisible hand; but, in terms of actual political economy, car manufacturers have come across many difficulties that cannot be resolved by market players themselves, that is, neither by automakers nor by auto purchasers.