Abstract
The shift to electric mobility is driving disruptive transformations in the automotive sector worldwide. It poses
significant but different opportunities and challenges to incumbents and latecomers at both the firm and country
levels. China’s green industrial policy has facilitated its rapid catching up and even leapfrogging in some
domains of electromobility. This article asks whether the exploitation of this window of opportunity can be
replicated in other latecomer countries. Accordingly, it provides a comparative analysis of the automotive
green window of opportunity in Brazil, India, and South Africa, three emerging economies with long established
but structurally different automotive industries. To do so, it examines domestic preconditions, policy
and enterprise responses, and preliminary industrial development outcomes. Although all the three countries
face constraints in replicating China’s relative success, the article shows how green opportunities and threats
are unequally divided between the three countries.