Temporal echoes and cross-geography policy effects: Multiple levels of transition governance and the electric vehicle breakthrough

Abstract

This article analyses the Norwegian electric vehicle transition from a socio-technical perspective, shedding light on the emergence of one of the most important EV markets globally. The Norwegian strategy to promote this transition is often understood as a set of targeted policies to create EV demand. Here, we illustrate how visions and incentives for a Norwegian EV transition have emerged over a period of 40 years, highlighting how many of the incentives were actually introduced as mechanisms to stimulate the creation of a Norwegian EV industry niche. Conceptually, we contribute to understandings of the complex geographies of niche creation through discussions of how local policies can have trans-local and global effects. Further, we identify dynamics we describe as temporal echoes, which illustrate how visions, strategies or policies introduced at a specific point in time to serve a particular purpose might unexpectedly re-appear later, transformed, to serve different purposes.