Domestic Incentive Measures for Environmental Goods with Possible Trade Implications: Electric Vehicles and Batteries

The main aim of this paper is to survey the policies currently in use to supportthe production and deployment of HEVs and electric vehicles (EVs)1, from the perspective of their possible implications for international trade. A wide variety of policies are currently being used by nations at the federal or central level and at the sub-nationalevel to accelerate the uptake and use of electric vehicles. These policies are reviewed in detail in this paper and are summarised in Table 1. As is the case with renewable energy, which was examined in a previous report in this series2, both developed and emerging economies aspire to be at the forefront of developments in this new industry and have implemented policies aimed at increasing their capacity to develop, manufacture and service electric vehicles. Direct government support has been concentrated in three areas: on improvingthe capacity and lowering the cost of storage batteries, on ncreasing the scale of deployment of plug-in hybrid electric (PHEV) vehicles and battery-electric vehicles (BEVs), and on developing the infrastructure for recharging electric vehicles. Such support is being provided by several OECD countries but also by governments elsewhere, including the People’s Republic of China, India, South Africa, and several governments in South-East Asia.

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