E-Axle Miniaturization and Integration Patent Landscape 2026
- Filings peaked in 2022 at five and have not returned to that level since, pointing to a field that filled its core claim space early rather than one still accelerating.
- Two BYD families carry citation counts of 52 and 50, far ahead of every other record and marking the housing-integration design that most later filers had to work around.
- B60P and F16D each hold just one record against B60K's full 17-of-17 coverage, leaving load-handling and clutch/brake integration as the most open adjacent branches.
Filing growth compares 2021 (1 records) with 2024 (0) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field.
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks patent families describing highly integrated electric drive axles — assemblies that combine motor, transmission and differential into a single compact unit — filed between 2015 and 2026. The corpus is built from 17 published families matched on e-axle terminology in the title/abstract alongside integration-specific language such as high integration, compact drive unit and footprint reduction, restricted to the B60K, B60K17/04 and H02K7 classification space.
Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months in most jurisdictions, so filings from the last one to two years in this dataset will read as thinner than they eventually turn out to be. The trend and composition figures below should be read with that lag in mind, particularly for 2025 and 2026.
Filing trend and technology composition
Seventeen published families sit inside this search, spanning a 2015-2026 window with a data cut-off of 2026-07-31. The most recent year is always undercounted because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months.
Filings peaked in 2022, then eased
Filings rose from zero in 2017 to a peak of five in 2022, the midpoint of the tracked window, with no year since matching that level — a flat-to-declining pattern rather than a growth curve.
B60K anchors every record; the tail is chassis, not drivetrain
All 17 records touch B60K (vehicle propulsion and drive), with B60B (wheels and tyres, 7) and F16H (gearing, 6) the next densest. B60G, B60T and B60L each carry only two or three records, and B60P and F16D just one apiece — the thinnest claim coverage in the set.
Shares are the percentage of the 17 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on E-Axle Miniaturization and Integration with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about e-axle miniaturization and integration and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaKey patents shaping the e-axle claim landscape
Electric drive axle assembly and vehicle having the electric drive axle assembly
Discloses an electric drive axle assembly combining an electric power assembly (motor, transmission, differential) with an axle case assembly. The transmission housing carries the motor and supports the differential, while the axle case component houses two half-axles and the differential, with the transmission housing fixed to the axle case.Published 2018-10-18 · Assignee: BYD Company Limited
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WO2017114423A1 | Electric drive AXLE assembly and vehicle having the electric drive AXLE assembly | 52 |
| 2 | US20180297401A1 | Electric drive axle assembly and vehicle having the electric drive axle assembly | 50 |
| 3 | WO2017114422A1 | Vehicle and electric drive AXLE assembly for vehicle | 26 |
| 4 | WO2017114417A1 | Dump truck | 22 |
| 5 | US20230001777A1 | Multi-mode torque vectoring electric drive axle with single actuator | 17 |
| 6 | US20220410684A1 | Dual-mode electric drive axle with torque parallel coupling and torque vectoring | 16 |
| 7 | CN112172489A | 一种集成同轴式电驱动桥系统 | 10 |
| 8 | WO2017114418A1 | Agitator truck | 10 |
| 9 | US11198359B2 | Dual motor coaxial e-axle with rotor shaft locking mechanism | 8 |
| 10 | US10189351B2 | Agitator truck | 6 |
Ranked by citation count within the searched corpus; older filings are structurally favoured, so treat this as an influence signal rather than a current-activity ranking.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three patterns stand out once family counts and citation weight are separated from raw document totals.
Two families carry the field's influence
WO2017114423A1 and US20180297401A1 hold 52 and 50 citations respectively, well ahead of the next tier. That concentration means most subsequent filers have had to position their claims relative to this one housing-integration design.
Growth flattened after the 2022 peak
Filings climbed from zero in 2017 to five in 2022 and have not exceeded that since. Combined with an 18-month publication lag, the most recent years understate true filing activity but do not reverse the flattening trend.
Coverage is a core plus a thin tail
Every record touches B60K, and B60B (7) and F16H (6) are the next-densest subclasses. B60P and F16D each hold only one record, marking the least-claimed adjacent territory.
Filing here is mostly solo, not joint
Only one co-assignee pair appears in the dataset, linking two Schaeffler entities. Outside that pair, the corpus is dominated by single-assignee filings rather than joint development.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to e-axle miniaturization and integration, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| Schaeffler Technologies AG & Co. KG | Schaeffler Group USA Inc. | 1 |
The single co-assignee pair links Schaeffler Technologies AG & Co. KG with Schaeffler Group USA — a cross-border filing inside one corporate family rather than an inter-company alliance.
Assignee landscape and where the gaps sit
BYD's two top-cited families anchor the field, with Schaeffler's cross-border pair, Jilin University and a scatter of single-filing Chinese manufacturers rounding out the corpus. Recent-year momentum is thin across the board, with only one assignee showing any activity in the latest tracked year.
BYD Company Limited
Holds the two most-cited families in the corpus, WO2017114423A1 and US20180297401A1, both describing the same motor-housing-to-axle-case integration approach that later filers reference most.
Schaeffler Technologies + Schaeffler Group USA
The only co-assignee link in the corpus, pairing the German parent with its US arm — evidence of coordinated cross-jurisdiction filing rather than external collaboration.
Fujian Huanan Heavy Industry Machinery
The only assignee in this dataset with a filing in the latest tracked year, while BYD, Schaeffler's two entities, Jilin University and Weifang Petterly Electric show none in that year.
Jilin University
Appears in the assignee ranking as an academic filer rather than a manufacturer, indicating some research-stage activity alongside the commercial entrants dominating this corpus.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Fujian Huanan Heavy Industry Machinery Manufacturing Co., Ltd. | 1 | — |
| BYD Company Limited | 0 | — |
| Jilin University | 0 | — |
| Schaeffler Technologies AG & Co. KG | 0 | — |
| Schaeffler Group USA Inc. | 0 | — |
| Weifang Petterly Electric Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Hunan Sany Huayuan Machinery Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Chery Commercial Vehicle (Anhui) Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
Where to take this landscape next
The filing and citation patterns above point to specific follow-up work rather than a finished conclusion.
Chart a design-around against the BYD pair
WO2017114423A1 and US20180297401A1 carry the field's citation weight; any new housing-integration filing should be checked against their exact structural claims before drafting.
Compare claims in EurekaTest claim scope in the thin IPC branches
B60P, F16D and B60L each carry only one or two records; a freedom-to-operate check in these branches is faster to clear than in the crowded B60K core.
Run a white-space search in EurekaFrequently asked questions
An e-axle (electric drive axle) integrates the motor, transmission and differential into a single drive unit rather than three separate assemblies, which is what makes it attractive for compact EV platforms. Miniaturization claims typically cover how tightly those components nest inside one housing, since footprint reduction is a direct selling point to vehicle platform teams. In this dataset every one of the 17 tracked families touches the core B60K propulsion-and-drive classification, which is where those housing-integration claims sit.
By citation count, the two most influential records in this corpus are WO2017114423A1 (52 citations) and its US counterpart US20180297401A1 (50 citations), both describing a motor-to-transmission-housing-to-axle-case arrangement. A related WIPO filing, WO2017114422A1, follows with 26 citations. These citation counts reflect a searched corpus and favour older filings, so treat them as a signal of influence on later filers rather than a ranking of current market importance.
Filings rose from zero in 2017 to a peak of five in 2022, and no year since has matched that peak, which reads as flat-to-declining rather than an accelerating field. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent year in the trend is understated and should not be read as a real drop-off yet. The more reliable read is that claim space around the core housing-integration concept filled up by the early 2020s and new filers are now working the margins.
The thinnest IPC coverage in this corpus sits in B60P (load-handling vehicles, 1 record), F16D (clutches and brakes, 1 record) and B60L (electric vehicle propulsion, 2 records), compared with 17 of 17 records touching B60K. That gap suggests claims connecting the e-axle housing to dedicated clutch/brake modules or load-handling chassis are comparatively open. Suspension (B60G, 3) and braking (B60T, 3) integration are similarly under-claimed relative to gearing (F16H, 6).
The two BYD-held families, WO2017114423A1 and US20180297401A1, claim a specific structural chain: motor fixed to a transmission housing, which is itself fixed to an axle case containing the differential and half-axles. A design-around needs to break that chain at a structural point — for example by decoupling motor mounting from the transmission housing, or by supporting the differential independently of the axle case — rather than by substituting materials or fasteners. Reviewing the full claim language against your specific housing topology, rather than relying on the abstract alone, is the only reliable way to confirm clearance.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.