DriveForward

🔝Innovative Suppliers by Automotive Patents

I analysed the Automotive Patent landscape in AI, EV & Hydrogen to find innovators driving digital and energy transformation.

Finding top innovators is crucial for the shift from ICE to electric vehicles, from assisted to autonomous driving and vehicles learning and updating/upgrading themselves.

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🔍 Key findings

📈 Patent filings in AI, software, sensors, batteries, EV charging, and Hydrogen demonstrate innovation and technology competence to drive digital transformation and energy transition in automotive and mobility.

💡Here’s what I have found, segmented by domain and companies to watch.

  • 🌏 Asian suppliers have a strong IP position in technologies which are the building blocks of next-generation autonomous, electric and shared mobility.
  • 💰 Whoever holds Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) in electrification (EV charging, batteries), connectivity, software-defined vehicles and autonomous vehicle perception can monetise automotive disruption.
  • 🚨 For example, LG Innotek is emerging as a strong player with five SEPs for the Electronic Vehicle Communication Controller (EVCC).
  • 🏆All of the world’s Top-5 Science & Technology (S&T) clusters are now located in East Asia

🤖 AI – Automotive | Samsung

✅ Samsung Electronics and Bosch filed the highest number of artificial intelligence patents related to Automotive applications in Q2 2024, followed by Alphabet and Microsoft.

Who is leading Computer Vision innovation for Autonomous?

NVIDIA , Intel Corporation, Magna and Tesla are among the automotive players with the highest number of published patent filings in Computer Vision for Autonomous Driving in the US in 2023. Patents filings grew with 12% CAGR between 2020 and 2022.

The focus of innovation is on the reduction of computational complexity, fusion and simulation.

💬 Generative AI (across industries) | Tencent & Baidu

China dominates GenAI patents, according to a report by the WIPO published in July 2024.

✅ Tencent (the company behind WeChat), Ping An Insurance Group and Baidu, Inc. (ERNIE 4.0.) own the most GenAI patents.

New Categories of Inventions focused on software and data ownership

Software plays a critical role in EVs, AI, and connected vehicles, increasing the focus on protecting software code, updates, and access to data generated by these systems.

Innovations in software algorithms, hardware designs, and cybersecurity solutions create new IP categories.

AI-generated inventions blur the lines of authorship, requiring clear guidelines and potential updates to copyright laws to determine IP rights ownership.

🔋 US Battery IP 🇺🇸

#batteries are the cornerstone of new business models in electrification. The analysis of +4,000 patent applications on lithium-ion batteries published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in the last five years, revealed innovation trends and key players.

  • Almost 40% have been filled in the last 5 years, demonstrating the strong momentum to improve the energy density of Li-ion.
  • Japan’s role in lithium-ion and solid-state batteries is increasing
  • Silicon IGBTs (insulated-gate bipolar transistors) dominate power traction inverters, but Silicon Carbide (SiC) and Gallium Nitride (GaN) metal-oxide field effect transistors (MOSFETs) offer an alternative.

💧Hydrogen Mobility | Toyota, Honda & Hyundai

🔝The 10 most innovative carmakers in Hydrogen Mobility

💡A joint study by the European Patent Office and the International Energy Agency (IEA) on Hydrogen Patents reveals the key innovators in Automotive.

🏅Japanese carmakers Toyota Motor Corporation and Honda and Korea’s Hyundai Motor Company (현대자동차) top Hydrogen patent filings.

🎯The focus of innovation is on hydrogen tanks (storage) and refuelling⚠️Long-distance transportation using hydrogen-based fuels is still nascent.

📈 Patent filing publications can provide strong signals of innovation and help scout for new opportunities, technologies or strategies.

♻️Automotive players see potential in #Hydrogen to decarbonize heavy-duty trucks, as well as a part of a fuel-agnostic powertrain solution.

Japanese carmakers lead patent filings in Hydrogen Mobility

🔥 SEP in e-mobility: LG Innotek is emerging as a strong player

✅ LG Innotek has filed a total of 3,500 patents related to automotive components over the past five years.

They have successfully listed five SEPs for the Electronic Vehicle Communication Controller (EVCC).

🤔 Why should you care?

Patent filings demonstrate innovation.

Building a strong (IP) Intellectual Property Portfolio is crucial to protect competitive advantage or build competence.

Furthermore, companies can monetise their IP portfolio with Standard Essential Patents,

Measuring Patent intensity (volume of filings) and growth can help identify signals of emerging technologies, applications and innovation hubs.

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