Abstract: This report analyzes the global patent application trend, patent technology output and distribution area, main applicant and technology composition of thermal management technology of New Energy Vehicle Power Battery, to help enterprises master the patent layout of thermal management technology of power battery as a whole, and on this basis, summarize and put forward the patent early-warning mechanism and suggestions for overseas distribution of European market.
In order to effectively alleviate the pressure of energy and environment, the new energy vehicle has been paid more and more attention. At present, China’s new energy vehicle industry is the global leader in scale, the production and sales volume of the world for five years in a row, the entire new energy vehicle industry in the next 3-5 years has a very broad development prospects. Then the major enterprises of new energy vehicles “Heart”-power batteries will certainly double the favor. As the main energy storage form of new energy vehicle, the performance of power battery directly restricts the power, economy and safety of new energy vehicle. The adaptability of Power Battery to temperature has become one of the key factors that restrict its application in electric vehicles, and the thermal management technology of battery has become the key technology to guarantee the performance, service life and safety of battery.
Battery Thermal Management System (BTMS) , as one of the core technologies of power battery, mainly includes three main functions: heat dissipation, preheating and temperature balance. Heat dissipation and preheating are adjusted for the possible effects of external ambient temperature on the lithium-ion battery; temperature equalization is used to reduce the internal temperature differences within the lithium-ion battery, to prevent a part of the battery overheating caused by rapid performance degradation.
At present, the battery heat management system more mature cooling methods are: air cooling, liquid cooling. In addition, there are some new cooling methods: heat pipe cooling, phase change material cooling, and composite cooling technology. Different cooling methods of power battery have advantages and disadvantages.
In terms of the competitive environment of enterprises, from the perspective of patent application trends, although the number of patent layouts of thermal management technologies for power batteries has decreased in individual years, but the overall trend was upward (the number of 2021 patents declined in 2020, possibly due to a lag in patent disclosure) and peaked in 2019, with the number of distribution increasing from 782 in 2002 to 9,960 in 2019, an average annual growth rate of 15.0% .
After 2015, due to the rapid development of new energy automobile industry in China, the global thermal management technology of Power Battery has entered the rapid development stage, from 2015 to 2019, the average annual increase of 1,221, is 4.8 times that of 2002 to 2014.
Although China started late in the new energy automobile industry and its technology development time is relatively short, it has developed rapidly. The output of patents on thermal management technologies for power batteries has already surpassed Japan in 2013, and it has become the country with the highest annual output of patents, china leads the way in total patent output, at 3.3 times that of Japan, the second-largest country, and six times that of South Korea, the third-largest.
Judging from the trend of patent output in various countries, China has been on an upward trend, especially after 2015, with rapid development. Since 2011, Japan and South Korea have been in a relatively stable stage of development, and the amount of patent output fluctuates in a certain range. Countries, regions and organizations such as the United States, Germany, France, and the 2021 also showed an overall increase in the number of patents produced (the number of patents dropped in 2020, possibly due to a lag in patent disclosure) , but the pace of development is much slower than in China.
According to the global patent technology layout of thermal management technology of Power Battery, 11 countries, regions and organizations in the search area have all made patent layout in this field, only the strength of the layout is different. Among them, China, Japan, the United States, South Korea, Germany and the European Patent Office have a large number of patent layouts in this field, which is a hot area for patent protection, and the market competition is relatively fierce, especially in China, where the number of patent layouts is far higher than in other regions, in recent years, the number of patent distribution accounts for an absolute advantage, it can be seen that countries with active technology output are also the key areas of patent protection in this area.
In addition, 6,021 patents were filed through the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) , accounting for 8.0 percent of the total, ranking fifth. Patent applications from China, Japan, South Korea, Germany, France and the United Kingdom mainly come from domestic applicants, especially France, China and Japan. This phenomenon is more prominent, it shows that the competition in this field in these countries is mainly between domestic enterprises; the US and Russian patents mainly come from non-domestic applicants, especially Russia, and about 70% of the patents come from foreign applicants, it shows that the market competition in these countries is more diversified, and the innovation ability of domestic enterprises is not strong, mainly the competition among foreign enterprises.
Four Japanese companies, three South Korean companies and two German companies are among the top 10 patent applicants for thermal management technology for power batteries, while one Chinese company is among the top 10, all of which are large and powerful companies. Toyota led the way in patent output, followed by LG of South Korea, which produced about one-half as many patents as Toyota, and Hyundai, which produced about one-third as many. BYD ranked seventh in patent output among the top 10 Chinese companies.
To sum up, the rapid growth of patent applications in China in recent years has led to the rapid development of global patents. China, Japan, South Korea, the United States and other developed countries strong technical strength, patent output. The market competition between China and Japan is fierce, and the competition mainly comes from domestic enterprises. Japanese, Korean and German enterprises have outstanding performance, strong market competitiveness, with a higher awareness of overseas patent protection. The European Patent Office mainly comes from the United States, Japan, Germany and other developed countries in the United States, Japan and Europe. Liquid cooling is the mainstream of technology innovation, followed by air cooling. Eurostat layout focus on liquid cooling cooling, Japan, Europe and South Korea Enterprises and China’s BYD more prominent performance.
Joint-stock company, Valeo and Tesla are the main risk sources in the European market, so we should pay more attention to the important patents related to battery thermal management technology of these companies. Joint-stock company has 13 important patents in the field of thermal management technology for power batteries, the company in the power battery thermal management technology field has been more attention to the battery size reduction, cooling efficiency improvement and patent application. After 2010, Valeo focused on the development of plate-type cooling parts, and in recent years, he focused on improving the mechanical strength of cooling parts and using dielectric fluid to cool them. Battery Management System (BMS) is one of the most important technologies of Tesla Tesla’s Battery Management System, BMS is mainly composed of master control module and slave control module.
Through overseas intellectual property early-warning analysis, enterprises can rely on themselves or through external forces to collect patent dynamic information related to their own products or technologies in the target exporting countries, and carry out targeted statistics and analysis, the patent risk warning and active prevention, better determine the direction of research and development and industrial development. It is suggested that the enterprise should establish perfect patent early-warning mechanism and perfect overseas patent layout in the following aspects.
Firstly, strengthening the research and development and layout of complex product and system integration in the field of battery thermal management technology, and narrow the technology gap with foreign domestic companies. In order to avoid patent infringement, we should strengthen the risk early warning, track the relevant patent and avoid the patent layout.
Secondly, people should pay more attention to the high-risk patent with similar cooling structure and avoid the risk of infringement.
Thirdly, in the new direction of technology to strengthen the forward-looking layout, seize the opportunity. At present, the compound cooling method of automobile battery has become a new trend of automobile battery cooling. Various cooling methods are helpful to solve the defects of the single cooling method and improve the cooling efficiency, in the future, there will be more and more patent applications about compound cooling of battery. Enterprises should keep track of relevant patents to avoid infringement.
Last but not least, studying the existing technology, grasp the technical trends, technical issues, patent mining, improve the patent layout, escort overseas markets, strengthen the peripheral layout, build patent portfolio.