The impacts of financial support on technological innovation in fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) from a national inter-comparative perspective

To understand the role of financial support in fostering technological innovation in fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs), the impacts of policy/market-oriented financial support are empirically examined by using the Tobit model and panel threshold model, based on data from 58 listed enterprises in China, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Canada, and Korea (UKGJCK). The obtained results show that: i) Both policy- and market-oriented financial support have an incentive effect on FCEVs' technological innovation; however, technological innovation in China's FCEVs depends on government subsidies and equity financing, whereas UKGJCK relies more on tax incentives and debt financing. ii) Government subsidy has a dual-threshold effect with the first and second threshold values of $39.82 million and $46.27 million, causing a nonlinear effect of debt financing and equity financing on technological innovation in China's FCEVs; while debt and equity financing have only one threshold. iii) On the other hand, most financial support instruments do not have nonlinear effects on FCEVs' technological innovation in UKGJCK, except for tax incentives. Increasing tax incentives for highly indebted FCEV enterprises would instead undermine their capacity for technological innovation. Thereby, the present study provides significant policy implications for tailoring financial support for FCEVs' technological innovation.