Watt’s the big deal? : European Green Deal’s impact onelectrification research in the automobileindustry

Abstract: The attitude towards sustainability has vastly changed in the last few years.The European Green Deal(EGD) is a European law package that addresses the climate crisis and aims to transform businesseswithin the European Union towards more sustainable models. The automobile industry especially is atarget of transformation with the decarbonization efforts mandated by the Green Deal. As such, onewould expect a drastic change of how business is done around the time the Green Deal was passedand the years following it. This thesis has analyzed the annual reports of four large automobile firmsusing qualitative coding within the European Union from 2018 to 2022 in order to evaluate how thelaw package has influenced electrification research. This thesis used theoretical concepts such asinstitutional theory, theories about uncertainty and theories about innovation to analyze the results.Results indicated that while the Green Deal’s ambitions and targets are being set into motion, firmsmight not consider it as their guiding hand while moving towards sustainability. While theirconfidence levels in the EGD vary, there is plenty of opportunity for the EU to increase innovation atthis critical point in time through partnerships and infrastructural support.