Electric Vehicles & IP

In 1996 General Motors released the EV1, the first mass-produced electric automobile from a major auto-manufacturer. It was not a success; its production, then subsequent recall and destruction formed the basis of the 2006 documentary 'Who Killed The Electric Car?'¹. While the level of production was unprecedented, the technology itself was not, Electric Vehicle (EV) technology stretches back as far as 1900 when a series hybrid Porsche EV was released, recently rebuilt and on display as the Semper Vivus². EV technology has long been in development, related patents can be found in 19^th century filings, although it is only since 1970 (Figure 2) that sustained filings in this area have been made, quickly rising to around 0.2% of all patent filings per year and then remaining fairly steady for around 20 years as the technology was making inroads. In the mid 1990s patent filings on EV technology doubled, and with the release of the GM EV1 the future of the EV