Patent Landscape and International Benchmark of Electric Machine Technologies for Electric Mobility

Abstract

This paper examines the patent landscape for automotive electric machines as key technology for electric mobility in a time frame from 2011 until 2022. For the analysis, an indicator-based assessment of patent meta information is carried out with the aim to identify all relevant research activities related to electric mobility over a timeframe of 12 years. The analysis of patent applications serves as an important indicator for activities aiming to advance the state-of-the-art of technology development and is mainly driven by the industry, but also universities and research institutions worldwide invest heavily in the development. In this paper, a special focus lies on investigating research and development (R&D) activities related to Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machines (PSM), Induction Machines (IM), Externally-excited Synchronous Machines (EESM) and Axial Flux Machines (AFM). Thus, an extensive technology database was designed, covering detailed specifications of more than 83,300 patent applications in different world regions. Using text and data mining functionalities for this analysis, unique and sophisticated statements for technology development trends and research activities were identified. Results visualize the situation of China, Germany, Japan, South Korea and USA in comparison based on the assessment of the respective patent markets on the one hand as well as leading institutions on the other hand. The study shows that Japanese institutions were by far leading the technology development in selected areas, although loosing significant shares over time, while Chinas patent market and technological position has gained significant importance since 2011.