ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how beliefs about the commercial significance of emission standards have been influenced by the internal organization and innovative capacities of the major car firms and by the relationships between national vehicle industries and policymakers. It focuses on a series of vehicle-based technological innovations, where interactions with fuel quality and behavioural changes are minor, or straightforward. Everyone believes in the right to own a big, beautiful car. Attempts by officials to interfere in driving habits are generally resented. The Industrial Revolution resulted in poor air quality and often severe impacts on health through uncontrolled emissions of particulates, sulfur dioxide and heavy metals. Hydrocarbon emissions are a major component of gasoline vehicle emissions. However, diesel engines operate with an excess of air. The electric vehicle requirement in California shows what can happen when the relationship between the policy-maker and industry is so poor that policy-makers cannot discriminate between technology-forcing and commercialization-forcing.
