It is understood that Tesla’s patents focus on technologies that are related to battery.
According to ‘Is Tesla a Bubble? 2015 Edition’ report that was published by IP Nomics recently, 135 out of 203 patents that Tesla applied for 7 years from 2008 to 2014 are related to battery technologies. In detail, numbers of patents in technologies related to overheating prevention, charging, and battery pack were 50, 33, and 28 respectively. However numbers of patents in technologies related to general vehicle and motor control were just 33 and 20 respectively.
Even in ‘Self-Citation’ that shows R&D investment that Tesla focuses on, numbers of patents related to battery technologies were the most as number of patents in technologies related to overheating prevention, battery pack, and charging were 18, 17, and 10. Technologies related to overheating prevention and charging were cited intensively last year.
Overheating prevention is a required field to secure safety in batteries, and this is why people say that Tesla established unrivaled portfolio in both quantity and quality in its patents. This is also the reason why Tesla were able to make medium to large-sized sedan-like electric car ‘Model S’.
On the other hand, numbers of self-citations in technologies related to general vehicle, user interface, and design were low as they they were 9, 3, and 1 respectively.
Even other businesses cited Tesla’s patents that were related to batteries. Out of 61 patents that were cited between 2012 and 2014, number of patents in overheating prevention was the most as it was 13. Following technology in overheating prevention, numbers of citations in technologies related to battery pack, charging, general battery, and power invertor were 8, 5, 5, and 1 respectively.
Number of patents related to general vehicle was the most out of cited car technologies as it was 16. Following that, it was motor control (9) and user interface (4).
Increase in number of cited patents and Tesla’s stock showed consistent trend. While number of citations that shows technology utilization rapidly increased from 19 in 2011 to 154 in 2013, Tesla’s stock also showed continuous upward trend as it was $250 last year, which is 10 times to that of its stock ($25) in 2011.
It is also shown that Tesla is establishing patent portfolio that is related to charging station. Expansion of charging infrastructure is a major factor in electric car market. After starting to develop technologies related to charging station in 2009, Tesla applied and registered total of 14 patents. Tesla’s patents in charging station focus on expanding consumer’s service choice range. Consumers can choose electricity cost and charging time and others according to individual’s preference, and this is directly connected to battery life as well.
Number of patents that Tesla applied and registered in last 9 years (2006~2014) is 318, and 153 out of 318 patents was focused in recent 3 years.
Although it only registered 24 and 22 patents in 2010 and 2011 respectively, its numbers of registered patents increased in following years as they were 40, 57, and 52 in 2012, 2013, and 2014 respectively. It is also showing active participation in going after foreign markets as it applied for total of 105 family patents in Europe. Its prime example is building assembly factory in Netherland in 2013.
It is evaluated that current global electric car market passed its initial phase (2008~2011) centered on the U.S. and China and entered its second phase (2012~2018), which the growth is rapidly growing due to entrance of Europe OEM business. It is predicted that electric car market will expand to rising nations in upcoming year 2019.
IP Nomics’ Staff Reporter Lee, Gijong | gjgj@etnews.com