Why the flood of Toyota HEV patents?

An article written by Junko Yoshida for EETIMES – Toyota Motor Corp. announced this week a plan to start granting royalty-free licenses on the company’s closely guarded hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) patents. It will assign as many as 23,740 through 2030.

Japan’s largest car maker will also offer “fee-based” technical support to purchasers of their powertrain electrification systems, including Toyota motors, batteries, PCUs and control ECUs. Toyota is seeking to help vehicle manufacturers who are new to HEV development reach their performance goals as soon as possible.

So why is Toyota doing this? Out of generosity? Or its dogged pursuit of a reduction in CO2 emissions?

Toyota described its goal as “driving global vehicle electrification.”

There are industry observers, however, who suspect different. They note that Toyota – late to the EV market — might want to buy the time it needs to catch up with rivals and prolong the life of HEVs on the global market… Full article