Tesla Inc. Patent Portfolio Analysis - May 2019 - Relecura
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Tesla Inc.
Patent Portfolio Analysis
May 2019
©2019, Relecura Inc. www.relecura.com +1 510 675 0222Tesla Inc. – Patent Portfolio Analysis
Introduction
Tesla, Inc. is a California-based automotive and energy company. The company was founded in July 2003, by
engineers Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, under the name Tesla Motors to develop a sports car. Tesla
obtained funding from various sources, most notably from the co-founder of PayPal, Elon Musk, who became
chairman of the company in 2004. [1]
In 2006, Musk published his “secret” plan for Tesla on the company blog. “Build sports car. Use that money to build
an affordable car. Use that money to build an even more affordable car. While doing above, also provide zero
emission electric power generation options.” In 2008, the year when Tesla launched its first fully electric car, The
Roadster, the founders quit the company and Elon Musk took over. Tesla now specializes in electric car
manufacturing and solar panel manufacturing through its SolarCity subsidiary. [2]
Elon Musk recently stated that 2019 would be the year of the Solar Roof and Powerwall, and the company is making
aggressive efforts to renew its focus on the solar energy business. Tesla is ramping up the production of solar roof
tiles and the energy-storing Powerwall battery by offering panels for around $1.75 to $1.99 per watt, lower than the
U.S. national average of $2.85 per watt. [3]
Elon Musk also recently reiterated his belief that a technological advancement by Tesla in accelerating the Electric
Vehicle revolution should be open for others to learn from. He shared a reminder of the blog post he wrote in 2014
when Tesla opened its patent portfolio. “Tesla will not initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith,
wants to use our technology,” Musk wrote then. [4]
For this report, we have analyzed a total of 870 currently active published patent applications in the Tesla portfolio.
Unless otherwise stated, the report displays numbers for published patent applications. For this analysis, we have
not included the patents added to Tesla’s overall patent assets via its acquisition of SolarCity Corporation in 2016.
The analytics are presented in the various charts and tables that follow. These include the following,
• Portfolio Summary • Top CPC Codes
• Published Applications – Growth • Evolution of the Top CPC Codes
• Key Geographies • Select Key Patents in the Portfolio
• Top Forward Citing (FC) Assignees • Top technologies covered by the high-quality patents
• Technologies cited by the FC Assignees • Portfolio taxonomy
• Topic Map - Concepts • Competitor comparison by technology categories
Insights
• The continued upward trend in Tesla's published applications began in 2015. In 2018, Tesla obtained 177
published applications.
• The U.S. is the favored filing destination for Tesla, accounting for more than half of its active published
applications. The other significant jurisdictions where Tesla has sought patent coverage include the European
Patent Office, China and Japan.
• Batteries and its related aspects are the main area of Tesla's patent coverage with over half its portfolio
addressing these technologies.
• Companies citing Tesla's patents include the auto majors, specialist electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers, and Tier
1 suppliers to the OEMs including battery suppliers. The focus of the cited patents relates in the most part to
various aspects of EV batteries - their manufacture, charging, control and testing.
• In addition to battery technologies, Tesla's high-quality patents cover areas such as EV control and safety, driver
interactions for EVs and end-user applications in transport.
References
1. Tesla, Inc. (Britannica.com)
2. The Secret Tesla Motors Master Plan (Tesla.com)
3. Why Tesla Slashed Its Solar Panel Prices (Fortune.com)
©2019, Relecura Inc. www.relecura.com Page 1 of 10Tesla Inc. – Patent Portfolio Analysis
4. All Our Patent Are Belong To You (Tesla.com)
Published Applications - Summary
Published Applications - Growth
Key Geographies
©2019, Relecura Inc. www.relecura.com Page 2 of 10Tesla Inc. – Patent Portfolio Analysis
Top Forward Citing (FC) Assignees
FC Assignees # Applications FC Assignees # Applications
FORD 137 PORSCHE 41
GM 97 HONDA 37
TOYOTA 92 GE 36
BOSCH 84 MITSUBISHI 33
SAMSUNG 73 VOLKSWAGEN 33
HYUNDAI 63 KIA MOTORS 32
BMW 58 DENSO 31
LUCID MOTORS (ATIEVA) 50 PANASONIC 27
AUDI 46 RENAULT 24
Technologies cited by FC Assignees
Sub-technologies FORD GM TOYOTA BOSCH SAMSUNG HYUNDAI BMW LUCID MOTORS
(ATIEVA)
Secondary cells 39 26 29 45 43 15 22 13
Emission reduction in roadways 68 53 49 48 35 32 30 31
Charging, depolarising batteries 42 29 30 29 39 16 18 16
and supplying loads from batteries
Batteries constructional details and 20 9 13 24 25 3 15 5
manufacturing process
Electric vehicle charging, fuel cell 34 25 33 19 14 21 16 13
and hydrogen energy in
transportation
Safety devices on electrically- 32 26 28 32 21 18 16 17
propelled vehicles, monitoring
operating variables
Control parameters of input or 35 24 20 27 16 20 16 21
output for electrically-propelled
vehicles
Electric propulsion with power 16 11 13 11 4 8 9 10
supplied within the vehicle
Application specific batteries 6 6 10 7 9 5 7 2
Arrangements for testing electric 8 9 5 8 12 3 1 3
properties, locating electric faults
©2019, Relecura Inc. www.relecura.com Page 3 of 10Tesla Inc. – Patent Portfolio Analysis
Topic Map – Concepts
• The bubble size corresponds to the total number of patent applications for each concept.
• The bubble proximity corresponds to the “relatedness” of the individual concepts.
©2019, Relecura Inc. www.relecura.com Page 4 of 10Tesla Inc. – Patent Portfolio Analysis
Published Applications - Top CPC Codes
CPC Code Description # Applications
Y02T 10/7005 Emission reduction in roadways >> Batteries 155
Y02T 90/14 Electric vehicle charging, fuel cell and hydrogen energy in 99
transportation >> Plug-in electric vehicles
Y02T 10/705 Emission reduction in roadways >> Controlling vehicles with one 91
battery or one capacitor only
H01M 10/613 Secondary cells >> Cooling or keeping cold 81
B60L 53/14 Methods of charging EV batteries >> Conductive energy transfer 78
Y02T 90/121 Electric vehicle charging, fuel cell and hydrogen energy in 75
transportation >> by conductive energy transmission
B60L 3/0046 Safety devices on electrically-propelled vehicles, Monitoring 74
operating variables >> relating to electric energy storage systems,
e.g. batteries or capacitors
Y02T 10/7072 Emission reduction in roadways >> Electromobility specific 74
charging systems or methods for batteries, ultracapacitors,
supercapacitors or double-layer capacitors
H01M 10/625 Secondary cells >> Vehicles 71
H01M 2220/20 Application specific batteries >> Batteries in motive systems, e.g. 66
vehicle, ship, plane
Y02T 90/128 Electric vehicle charging, fuel cell and hydrogen energy in 66
transportation >> Energy exchange control or determination
H01M 2/1077 Batteries constructional details and manufacturing process >> 63
Racks, groups of several batteries
Y02T 90/16 Electric vehicle charging, fuel cell and hydrogen energy in 62
transportation >> Information or communication technologies
improving the operation of electric vehicles
B60L 58/26 Methods or circuit arrangements for monitoring or controlling EV 61
batteries or fuel cells >> By cooling
Y02T 10/7011 Emission reduction in roadways >> Lithium ion battery 61
Y02T 10/7044 Emission reduction in roadways >> Controlling the battery or 59
capacitor state of charge
B60L 2240/545 Control parameters of input or output for electrically-propelled 56
vehicles >> Temperature
B60L 58/27 Methods or circuit arrangements for monitoring or controlling EV 51
batteries or fuel cells >> By heating
B60L 58/12 Methods or circuit arrangements for monitoring or controlling EV 48
batteries or fuel cells >> By responding to the state of charge
[SoC]
Y02T 10/7061 Emission reduction in roadways >> the batteries or capacitors 47
being of the same voltage
©2019, Relecura Inc. www.relecura.com Page 5 of 10Tesla Inc. – Patent Portfolio Analysis
Evolution of Technologies - CPC Code Analysis
Select Key Patents in the Portfolio
Publication Title Star Rating # Forward
Number Citations
US7698078B2 Electric vehicle communication interface 4.0 160
US20080312782A1 Electric vehicle communication interface 4.0 131
US8643330B2 Method of operating a multiport vehicle 4.0 179
charging system
US8054038B2 System for optimizing battery pack cut-off 4.0 86
voltage
US8336319B2 Thermal management system with dual 4.0 81
mode coolant loops
US9321362B2 Cooling of charging cable 3.5 38
US7923144B2 Tunable frangible battery pack system 3.5 230
US9079498B2 Morphing vehicle user interface 3.5 60
US7789176B2 Electric vehicle thermal management system 3.5 114
US8453770B2 Dual motor drive and control system for an 3.5 69
electric vehicle
©2019, Relecura Inc. www.relecura.com Page 6 of 10Tesla Inc. – Patent Portfolio Analysis
High Quality* Patents - Top Sub-technologies Covered
(*High Quality ~ Relecura Star Rating 3 or more on a scale of 5)
Relecura Star Rating
Sub-technologies
3.0 3.5 4.0
Emission reduction in roadways 31 9 5
Charging, depolarising batteries and supplying loads from 20 6 2
batteries
Electric vehicle charging, fuel cell and hydrogen energy in 16 6 5
transportation
Safety devices on electrically-propelled vehicles, 17 6 2
Monitoring operating variables
Secondary cells 21 3 1
Control parameters of input or output for electrically- 12 5 5
propelled vehicles
Driver interactions for electrically-propelled vehicles 10 4 4
Electric technologies that reduce GHG mitigation 9 4 3
Supplying electric power to auxiliary equipment of vehicles 11 3 2
Other superstructure sub-units for vehicle 11 1 0
Electric propulsion with power supplied within the vehicle 10 2 0
Electrical propulsion units 11 1 0
Batteries constructional details and manufacturing process 10 2 0
End user applications in transport 4 4 3
Application specific batteries 9 1 0
Electric or fluid circuits for vehicles 9 0 0
Arrangements for testing electric properties, locating 6 1 0
electric faults
Systems supporting electrical power generation, 1 2 3
transmission or distribution
Digital interface arrangements 3 3 0
Arithmetic operations, Asynchronous digital pipeline 3 3 0
©2019, Relecura Inc. www.relecura.com Page 7 of 10Tesla Inc. – Patent Portfolio Analysis Portfolio Taxonomy ©2019, Relecura Inc. www.relecura.com Page 8 of 10
Tesla Inc. – Patent Portfolio Analysis Competitor Comparison – Break-up by Technology Categories (# Applications given for color-coded categories) ©2019, Relecura Inc. www.relecura.com Page 9 of 10
Tesla Inc. – Patent Portfolio Analysis
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About Relecura
Relecura is a full-stack cognitive cloud platform that provides custom intelligence and reports on patent
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without notice. This document, including the information and analysis and any opinion or
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