Russia (bbabo.net), - Battery improvement technologies and control systems have become the most patented developments related to electric vehicles. Such data was presented in its study by the largest aggregator of American and global patent data IFI Claims.
For the first time, the experts analyzed the most patentable categories of technological developments in the electric vehicle industry, considering the patent portfolio not only of auto giants, but also of specialized startups with the number of employees from one to 50 people. Also, this year's study is distinguished by a special attention to the technologies of startups that have patented their solutions, and the subsequent transfer of technologies from startups to corporations.
In total, more than 650 patents and patent families were examined. Data analytics was carried out taking into account the unique IFI Names technology, which tracks all variations of the company name and determines not only patent families, but also all subsidiaries of the ultimate patent owner (ultimate owner) both among start-ups and among corporations.
The experts noted that while there was a decline in patenting volumes between 2019 and 2020, the overall trend in patent filings in 2021 has recovered. At the same time, an interesting relationship has formed between large players and small startups with unique technologies. said IFI Claims Patent Services CEO Mike Bycroft.
Analysts noted that today many automakers are focusing on improving power supplies for electric vehicles. Over the past two years, most patents have been issued for battery charging systems. Daimler is the leader here (68 patents), followed by Toyota (47), Volkswagen (29), Audi (28) and Ford (27).
Small startups patent their systems in smaller volumes, although there are leaders here too - the American company Dcbel (7), the second and third places are shared by the French Ze Way (5) and Fermata from the USA (5), the fourth is the Spanish-Chinese Wallbox ( 4). According to the analysis, projects in this area have shown explosive growth over the past few years:
Among the startups that independently developed their technologies and then were taken over, the American company Sakti3 (69), which focuses on the development of batteries, was noted. Top companies also included Novatorque (37), a US electric motor manufacturer, Visedo (35), a Finnish chassis designer, and California-based startup WAVE (Wireless Advanced Vehicle Electrification) (25), specializing in battery solutions for heavy-duty vehicles and buses.
This pattern of patenting reflects the evolution of the global automotive industry. By 2026, electric vehicles will account for more than half of global passenger car sales, according to the Boston Consulting Group. Moreover, the cost of lithium-ion batteries, which are used in electric cars, has fallen nine times over the past ten years (to $137 per kWh), which in the future will also allow them to be mass-produced at the same price as conventional cars. For example, this year Kia plans to start selling its electric crossover in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and then gradually expand the presence of this model in other cities of the country. - said the official representative of Kia in Russia.
The second category of research by the number of patents was the technology of autonomous driving with the help of artificial intelligence. Ford became the sole leader (73). Among the largest developers of AI for unmanned control are StradVision (48), Robert Bosch GmbH and Nvidia (38 each), Toyota (33), as well as Kia, Hyundai, Nissan, Honda, Google, Waymo, Baidu, Uber and Tesla.
The most in-demand startups working on self-driving car AI tend to be in the US: Perceptive Automata, Kache AI, Autobrains (also known as Cartica AI), Secondmind, Netradyne Inc, and Affectiva. The study notes that the American company Rivian received the most "breakthrough" patent for the use of augmented reality to detect and locate vehicles.
IFI Claims highlighted Yandex, which has been developing self-driving cars since 2017 and has patented voice-controlled driving technologies, including in adverse weather conditions.
The IFI Claims study confirms that the global market for electric vehicles is growing exponentially every year and is attracting more and more attention in terms of patenting, said Maxim Proksh., Advisor to the Chairman of the Board of the Skolkovo Foundation on Intellectual Property Issues. - said the expert.The study conducted a comprehensive technology search (using patent co-classification, CPC) in the IFI Claims Direct patent database. This search included all published US patent applications from 2017 to 2021.
All inventions were divided into main groups: human needs, operations, transportation; chemistry, metallurgy; textiles, paper; stationary structures; engineering, lighting, heating, weapons, drilling and blasting; physics; electricity; new developments and end-to-end technologies covering several sections of the International Patent Classification (IPC).
To analyze the growth of interest in specific technologies, IFI Claims calculates a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over a five-year period for each classification code. The next step is to scatter plot the total number of patents (on the y-axis) and growth (on the x-axis) for each technology.
For example, when analyzing innovations in the electric vehicle market, the company first studied merger and acquisition (M&A) announcements, then compiled a list of about 100 companies with no more than 50 employees, and checked Claims Direct to see if they had patents. As a result, a list of 43 startups was compiled, which not only developed, but also protected their technologies.
In addition, the IFI Claims study showed how patented technologies from startups "flow" to large corporations, including mergers and acquisitions between continents. Below is a chart of patents for startups that have developed innovations in the past five years and have been taken over by larger companies:
In addition, the researchers showed how technologies move around the world based on the change of the ultimate patent owner (graph below), when the technology and its patent are acquired from its original owner through mergers and acquisitions.
Separately, the study highlights a group of startups that still operate independently, developing their own unique technologies that have not yet been affected by mergers and acquisitions in all areas of electric transport:
This is the first time IFI Claims Patent Services has conducted such a study of patent data.
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