Gavin Co-authors LSE Discussion Paper on the Economics of the EV Transition

The Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics has published the discussion paper The economics of the electric vehicle transition: demand, supply chains, and innovation (No. 2164, March 2026), co-authored by Viet Nguyen-Tien, Robert Elliott and Gavin.

The paper synthesises theory, stylised facts and recent empirical findings on how the global shift to electric vehicles is unfolding. It finds that adoption has come in waves that stalled and revived, and that diffusion is highly uneven across countries, with Norway near full electrification, adoption low in the US and Australia, and China an exception driven by industrial policy. It identifies supply chains for critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt and rare earths as a new bottleneck, and treats EVs as a platform technology that depends on charging infrastructure, smart grids, digital technologies and vehicle-to-grid systems.