Technological 'Lock-in and the Power Source for the Motor Car

James Foreman-Peck 
St Antony's College, Oxford
econjsfp@vax.ox.ac.uk

Abstract

As the nineteenth century ended, three principal types of 
engine competed to power the early motor car.  Had some 
minor condition been different around the beginning of the 
twentieth century, perhaps therefore today's road vehicles 
would not be powered overwhelmingly by internal combustion 
engines. That at least is an implication of the "lock-in" 
hypothesis. However the choice of product technology 
depended not on chance but at first on differential relative 
endowments of natural resources and capital. Abundant oil 
deposits and water encouraged the American development of 
lower first cost steam engines, which used more fuel and 
less capital. Electricity also was cheaper in the United 
States than in Europe, outside Germany. Since European 
endowments were not as auspicious for steamers or electrics 
at the turn of the century, European entrepreneurs focussed 
on the internal combustion engine. Judged by the rapid 
development 1895-1900, they chose the most progressive 
technological trajectory. By 1904, US motor firms were 
adopting European product technology and abandoning steam. 
By the end of the First World War they had also given up 
electricity.