Abstract

The history of the developed countries and the history of the automotive industry are strongly intertwined. The article discusses the possible evolving scenario for the automotive industry deriving from the deployment of the Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs). The electrical technology is likely to change radically the structure of the entire automotive value chain by determining an excess of production capacity in the assembly plants and a loss of many markets related to automotive parts and components. As a consequence, there is a need for carefully considered industrial policies to cope with the overall socio-economic effects of the expected changes. From a policy perspective, a distinction can be made between countries, such as Germany (and to a lesser extent France), which still retain the opportunity to continue to support the industrial strategies of their national players to offset the potential negative effects on their territory, and other countries (among which Italy), which on the contrary need fundamental changes in their policies to prevent the definitive disappearance of the automotive industry.