Just as Tesla did last year, Ford has decided to open up its electric vehicle patents to everyone, including its competitors. Obviously the company isn’t doing this out of the goodness of its heart, and neither was Tesla. The electric vehicle market has a very bright future, but is being held back by today’s technological limitations. By opening their patents to other automakers, Ford and Tesla are helping to accelerate growth and innovation in the electronic vehicle market, which is good for everyone.
Ford Motor Co. is opening up its patents on electric vehicles to competitors, but not because it is moving away from the technology. Quite the opposite, the company said Thursday. Ford is offering the patents to accelerate innovation and growth in vehicle electrification, and this year it plans to hire an additional 200 engineers to focus on the technology. Those engineers will be moving in to a newly dedicated facility called Ford Engineering Laboratories in Dearborn. Ford said it has more than 650 electrified vehicle patents and about 1,000 pending patent applications on electrified vehicle technologies. The automaker filed more than 400 patents dedicated to electrified vehicle technologies last year. That’s more than 20 percent of all the patents the company filed. Ford currently has six hybrid or fully electrified vehicles, including the Ford Focus Electric, Ford Fusion Hybrid, Ford Fusion Energi plug-in hybrid, Ford C-MAX Hybrid, Ford C-MAX Energi plug-in hybrid and Lincoln MKZ Hybrid.
