BYD electric cars and Tesla sold just 3,400 pure electric models in the third quarter, patented 16 times as many as Tesla’s
According to Nikkei News reported on October 7, Japan patent investigation company Patent Result statistics show that Tesla 2003 to 2022 cumulative application for patents 836, while BYD in the same period to apply for more than 13,000 patents. According to this calculation, BYD electric car patents are 16 times more than Tesla.
Interface news through the eye of the sky search found that in the past three years, BYD in China to obtain the number of authorised patents 7984, Tesla only 500. And globally, Wisdom Buds patent database shows that BYD has obtained 772 authorised invention patents so far in 2023, and Tesla has only obtained 115.
It’s worth noting that BYD’s third-quarter pure-electric sales were just 3,400 units shy of Tesla’s. As of last month, BYD’s pure electric model sales reached 431,600 units, an increase of 23% over the second quarter, while Tesla’s deliveries in the same period fell back more than 30,000 from the previous year. According to this estimate, BYD may rely only on the sales of pure electric models this year, will be able to overtake Tesla’s position in the global new energy vehicle market.
BYD’s growth momentum is inextricably linked to its innovation in the core area of the three electric. Battery-related technologies account for more than half of the patents it has applied for. Producing its own batteries lays the foundation for more affordable electric cars, and BYD’s lithium iron phosphate batteries are more affordable than the ternary batteries made from expensive metals such as nickel and cobalt that Japanese and Korean battery companies are pushing.
In fact, besides BYD, more Chinese auto brands are strengthening their technological innovation. Data from the China Automotive Technology Research Centre shows that China’s automotive patent disclosure volume was 362,200 items in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 12.94%
Among them, the number of invention patents authorised was 94,500, up 12.77% year-on-year.
Among the autonomous vehicle groups, BYD’s patent disclosure volume is only ranked ninth, and the top three are Dongfeng Group, China FAW and Changan Automobile. However, according to the ranking of the number of patents authorised, BYD ranked second, after Dongfeng
Group.