COMPANY RANKING OF DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN PATENT FAMILIESIN KEY COMPONENT TECHNOLOGIES OF ELECTRIC VEHICLES
1. Purpose
In recent years, the market for electric vehicles such as electric vehicles (EV),hybrid vehicles (HV) and fuel cell vehicles (FCV) has been expanding.
We, NGB Corporation, focuses on the key component technologies of electricvehicles and investigates domestic and foreign patent filings related to the keytechnologies.
2. Key Component Technologies
Electric vehicles are powered by an electric motor. This is a major difference fromconventional vehicles powered by an engine.
In this study, we set a motor, an inverter, and a battery, as the key component
technologies of electric vehicles, which support an electric drive propulsion system,
as shown below.
Figure：Outline of Electric Drive Propulsion System

ECU
MotorInverter

ECU
Battery

Electric Drive Propulsion System

ECU：Electronic Control Unit1
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Table：Key Component technologies subject to this study

1

We focused on an electric vehicle motor, which generates theMotordriving power of the vehicle when running and recovers energy
as a generator when braking.

2

InverterStructure

We focused on a technology relating to a cooling structure of(1) a circuit configuration to control motor speed, etc., byconverting the power from the battery, from direct current toalternating current, or (2) a semiconductor module.

Control

We focused on a control technology of motor torque androtation speed, and power conversion control such as PWMcontrol.

3

BatteryStructure

We focuses on a technology of battery structure for storing
electric power needed to drive electric vehicles. (excluding fuelcells)

Control

We focused on a control technology for efficiently managing abattery, such as monitoring and controlling the voltage andtemperature of multiple batteries.

3. Search Specification
We complied and ranked the number of patent applications and patents for each of
the key component technologies classified by the using the search queries according
the above table.
The search specification is as follows:
We searched and complied the number of patent applications and patents interm of patent family. (One number = one patent family).
We treated the subject patent family if the patent family has at least one
pending application or at least one patent within the valid period.
We complied the hit records of the subject patent family without reading thecontents of the patent applications and patents (without noise reduction).
4. Search Results
The company ranking of each key component technology is set forth below.

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MotorRank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
910

Current Assignee
DENSO
TOYOTA MOTORROBERT BOSCHMITSUBISHI ELECTRIC
HONDA MOTORHITACHI GroupVALEO EQUIPEMENTS ELECTRIQUESMOTEURAISIN Group
NIDEC
MITSUBA

Battery
Structure

Num.
1683
12611084930
834630588568483413

ECU
Inverter

Motor

ECUBatteryRank

Current Assignee

12345678910LG CHEMTOYOTA MOTORSAMSUNG SDIROBERT BOSCHPANASONIC GroupCONTEMPORARY AMPEREX TECHNOLOGYTOSHIBANISSAN MOTOR
BYD
HONDA MOTORElectric Drive Propulsion System

Structure
Rank
12345678910Current Assignee
DENSO
TOYOTA MOTOR
MITSUBISHI ELECTRICHITACHI GroupROBERT BOSCHPANASONIC GroupTOSHIBANISSAN MOTOR
FUJI ELECTRIC
INFINEON TECHNOLOGIES14631172877793354
340
321265
207
203

Rank
12345678910Current Assignee
DENSO
TOYOTA MOTOR
MITSUBISHI ELECTRICHITACHI GroupROBERT BOSCHTOSHIBAPANASONIC GroupNISSAN MOTORHYUNDAI MOTOR
GM GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS

33822
1977
1447
1386
1104
683
586
578
539
512

Control

Inverter
Control
Num.

Num.

Num.
1705
1575
1004
870
448
389
379
351
322
295

Rank

Current Assignee

12345678910TOYOTA MOTORROBERT BOSCH
LG CHEMDENSO
PANASONIC GroupSAMSUNG SDIHYUNDAI MOTOR
HONDA MOTOR
FORD GLOBAL TECHNOLOGIESTOYOTA INDUSTRIES

Num.
2424
1362
1254
1243
977
749
689
658
578
559

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Motor:Denso and Toyota Motor are particularly high in the number. As foreign companies,
BOSCH (DE) and VALEO (FR) are high in number.
Inverter:Denso, Toyota Motor, Mitsubishi Electric, and Hitachi group are the most frequent
patent filers in this order both in the structure and control. As foreign companies,
BOSCH is the highest in number both in the structure and control, and GM (US) isin the second next to BOSCH in the structure.
Toyota Motor and Denso entered into a business transfer agreement to transfer theelectronic component business from Toyota Motor to Denso12. We confirmed somerecords of the ownership change from Toyota Motor to Denso in the data set of thesubject patent families.

Battery:
In the structure, LG Chemical (KR) has the highest number, and Samsung SDI (KR),BOSCH (DE), CATL (CN), and BYD (CN) are at the top of the list. Foreign companies
tend to put more effort to file patent applications in the battery structure thanJapanese companies.
Nissan Motor in the raking 8th entered into a stock purchase agreement to transfer
its battery business to ENVISION GROUP, a renewable energy company 3 . We
confirmed some records of the ownership change from Nissan Motor to ENVISIONGROUP in the data set of the subject patent families.

1 Toyota Motor Web site in June 2018:https://global.toyota/jp/newsroom/corporate/22763980.html?_ga=2.245778631.252435672.1585877054552373323.1579666532
2 Denso Web site in April 2019:https://www.denso.com/global/en/news/newsroom/2019/20190405-g01/
3 Nissan Motor news room Web site in Aug. 2018:https://global.nissannews.com/en/releases/release-

ed7b0014763a42e1693c5c954e0607c2-180803-01-e

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In the control, Toyota Motor has the highest number, followed by BOSCH, LG
Chemical and Denso in this order. Similar to the structure, foreign companies tend
to put more effort to file patent applications than Japanese companies in comparison
to the other key component technologies.
Supplemental:
In generating the rankings, we considered the following points to control applicant
names:(1) Names of companies that are in a parent-child relationship in terms ofmanagement(2) Names of companies that have been acquired or integrated(3) Names of the new company and the old company(4) Spelling variants and clear error in company names
5.

SummaryJapanese mega-supplier Denso and Toyota Motor are filing particularly highnumbers of patent applications in the key component technologies of the motorand inverter. On the other hand, a large percentage of battery patent applications
were filed by South Korean, Chinese and European companies, suggesting thatthey are focusing on battery development.
In the key component technologies of electric vehicles, we expect to see fierce
competition for market share, including business transfers and alliances, both inJapan and abroad, and the number of patents from each company is likely tomove in tandem with that.
NGB IP Research InstituteTechnical Group, Automotive Analysis Team
December 22, 2020

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