The article questions the effectiveness of strategies adopted by territorial cultures concerning the diffusion of environmental innovation. What would be the optimal decentralization for energy and transport? The collected data were compared with an analysis scheme proposed by Ulrich Beck, that of “emancipatory catastrophism”, a positive catalyst of sustainability culture. These show that the widespread introduction of different types of electric vehicles better characterize the appropriate forms of decentralized climate risk. The Centre and the Periphery play a positive role in sustainable strategies. Pioneer automobile markets have difficulty in converting environmental values, strongly expressed, into effective solutions for pollution abatement, while emerging markets are struggling to emerge from the Utopia of sustainable cultures theories.