After having an impact on the motor markets of Europe and
America, the manufacturer and innovator of electric motors Tesla
entered China with a high profile. It is reported that since the
first batch of Model S were delivered in March at the
"attractive price" of CNY734,000 yuan, Tesla has
attracted more and more attention in China. Tesla motors, compared
with traditional vehicles, have neither an engine nor a
transmission device—Tesla adopts the 18650
cobalt-acid-lithium battery provided by Panasonic and uses the
battery comprising a parallel circuit of 8,000 cells to provide
sufficient power.
What advanced technologies does Tesla have? What is its patent
layout, especially the substantial layout of its core battery
technologies?
In this paper, Beijing Kangxin Huayuan IP Consulting Co., Ltd.
takes the patent applicant Tesla Motors as an example and studies
the macro trend of Tesla Motors' overall layout as well as the
battery-related technologies filed by Tesla Motors since 2012 from
the micro perspective.
1. Overall trend of Tesla Motors' patent applications
As a high-tech company, Tesla Motors not only introduces the
Internet element into the vehicle industry to realize the
innovation of business mode, but pays equal attention to technical
innovation and the protection of intellectual property rights, and
its global patent applications have covered 286 patent families up
to now (the patent applications of the same field in different
countries constitute one patent family).
Figure 1 displays the trend of Tesla Motors' annual patent
applications. As the figure shows, the number of patent
applications of Tesla Motors generally displays a rising trend from
2006 (note: the patent applications in 2013 have not been fully
disclosed) and it is expected to grow continually.
2. Regional distribution of Tesla Motors' patent
applications
Tesla Motors' Model S is already marketed in the USA and
Europe, and its patent applications have also been extended to many
different countries and regions around the world, which indicates
that there are many target markets. From Figure 2, it can be seen
that most applications are filed in the USA, Europe, Japan, Canada
and China.
It is noteworthy in Figure 2 that EP applications and WO
applications rank the first and fourth respectively, indicating
that the European Patent Applications (EP) and the International
Patent Applications (WO) are two major modes of Tesla Motors'
patent applications, i.e. it enters the member states of the
European Union through the uniform European Patent Application and
enters the countries throughout the world through the International
Patent Application.
3. Technical distribution of Tesla Motors' patent applications
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