Riassunto analitico
In the last few years, the automotive industry is moving more and more towards technological innovations such as electrification, due to the CO2 emission issues and changes in society’s sensitivity and needs. Especially after Tesla’s success in its goal to create a full electric vehicle with its first model the Roadster in 2008, the industry was characterized by some changes in the technologies, and car manufacturers started to introduce different types of vehicles such as battery electric vehicles (BEVs), plug-in electric vehicles (PHEVs), mild hybrid electric vehicles (MHEV), and fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV). This research investigates how the automotive sector is responding to the new technologies with a focus on the high-end and luxury segment, by analysing the time of entry, the evolution of the products portfolio, the technologies adopted, the R&D investments, and the announcements for the future launches of 10 car brands of the last years, taking into account the case of Tesla as a benchmark.
With these objectives, the work is organized into three parts: the first part that concerns the theoretical chapter about technological innovation and the leader-follower theory; the second part which provides an overview of the automotive sector and its development on the way to the innovation of electrification; and the third part presents the empirical analysis, followed by the discussion of the results.
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