EV Thermal Management Patents: Leaders, Growth & White Space 2026
Filing growth compares 2021 (255 records) with 2024 (515) — 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. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 3,450 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
How integrated thermal management patenting has evolved
Integrated vehicle thermal management sits at the junction of cabin climate control, electric propulsion cooling and battery thermal regulation, and the patent record reflects that convergence directly. Filings have grown from 62 in 2017 to a 2024 peak of 515, a period in which the underlying architecture shifted from separate HVAC, drivetrain and battery loops toward shared, integrated modules. The largest single technology class remains cabin heating and air conditioning (B60H), but the fastest strategic movement is in the overlap between propulsion thermal management (B60L) and battery thermal management (H01M), the two classes most directly tied to electric vehicle range and safety.
Ownership is concentrated at the top without being closed off. The five most active assignees hold roughly a fifth of all records in scope, and the ten most active hold just over a quarter, leaving the remaining filings spread across a long tail of smaller entrants. That structure suggests the field still has room for a well-targeted filing strategy, particularly outside the dominant cabin-HVAC claim space.
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Filing trends and technology composition
The dataset spans 3,450 published records from 2015 through the 2026 data cut-off, giving a decade-long view of how thermal management claims have shifted from standalone HVAC hardware toward integration with propulsion and battery systems.
Filing activity has more than doubled since 2021
Filings rose from 62 in 2017 to a peak of 515 in 2024, the last year that can be treated as complete given the roughly 18-month publication lag. Between 2021 and 2024 alone, filings grew 102%, from 255 to 515. 2025 and 2026 figures will continue to fill in as later-filed applications publish, so they should not yet be read as a slowdown.
Cabin climate control still anchors the field, but propulsion and battery classes are catching up
B60H (vehicle heating and air conditioning) appears in 40.6% of the 3,450 records, the single largest technology class. B60L (electric vehicle propulsion) and H01M (batteries, cells and fuel cells) follow at 25.2% and 19.6% respectively, reflecting the shift toward thermal architectures that manage cabin, drivetrain and battery loops together rather than in isolation. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100% of records.
Shares are the percentage of the 3,450 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on EV Platform & Chassis: Integrated Vehicle Thermal Management Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about ev platform & chassis: integrated vehicle thermal management patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaA representative claim in the integrated thermal module space
Integrated channel apparatus for non-heat pump thermal management integrated module, and electric vehicle
The application describes an integrated channel apparatus for a non-heat-pump thermal management module. A first component carries a channel group running through its thickness alongside a non-through groove, both sized to accommodate a connecting tube; a second component carries multiple strip grooves, each linking a matched pair of channels. The structure lets a single housing route coolant connections that would otherwise require separate tubing runs.Abstract condensed from the published filing for readability.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20130201316A1 | System and method for server based control | 1,727 |
| 2 | US7020701B1 | Method for collecting and processing data using internetworked wireless integrated network sensors (WINS) | 1,457 |
| 3 | US6735630B1 | Method for collecting data using compact internetworked wireless integrated network sensors (WINS) | 1,420 |
| 4 | US6859831B1 | Method and apparatus for internetworked wireless integrated network sensor (WINS) nodes | 1,178 |
| 5 | US6826607B1 | Apparatus for internetworked hybrid wireless integrated network sensors (WINS) | 586 |
| 6 | US20110074346A1 | Vehicle charger safety system and method | 533 |
| 7 | US8140658B1 | Apparatus for internetworked wireless integrated network sensors (WINS) | 506 |
| 8 | US7797367B1 | Apparatus for compact internetworked wireless integrated network sensors (WINS) | 439 |
| 9 | US20200164763A1 | Predictive model for estimating battery states | 381 |
| 10 | WO2010129369A2 | System and methods for inductive charging, and improvements and uses thereof | 341 |
Citation counts reflect influence within the searched corpus and favour older, earlier-filed records; they are not a measure of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for filing strategy
Four figures from this dataset matter more than the rest for anyone deciding where to file next or who to watch.
Leadership is real but not dominant
The five most active filers together hold 688 of the 3,450 records in scope. That is a meaningful lead but far from control of the field, and the top ten only extend it to 26.4%, leaving most filing activity to companies outside the ranked leaders.
Filing activity accelerated sharply, then the data thins out
Volumes rose from 255 records in 2021 to 515 in 2024, the field's peak year so far. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, 2025 and 2026 figures are still incomplete and should not be read as a cooling trend.
Cabin climate control still anchors the field
B60H remains the single largest IPC subclass by record share, ahead of B60L propulsion thermal management (25.2%) and H01M battery thermal management (19.6%). Multi-class overlap between these three is where the field's newest architecture claims are concentrated.
Joint filing is rare, and where it happens it is dense
Only 10 co-assignee pairings appear across the entire dataset, but the strongest pairing spans 154 shared records — a single automaker relationship, not a broad industry pattern.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to ev platform & chassis: integrated vehicle thermal management patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| Hyundai Motor Company | Kia Corporation | 154 |
| Hyundai Motor Company | Hyundai Wia Corporation | 36 |
| Anhui Welling Auto Parts Co., Ltd. | Guangdong Meizhi Compressor Co., Ltd. | 34 |
| Kia Corporation | Hyundai Wia Corporation | 29 |
| Hyundai Motor Company | Kia Corporation | 28 |
| Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., Ltd. | Ningbo Geely Automobile Research & Development Co., Ltd. | 27 |
| Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., Ltd. | Zhejiang Zeekr Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. | 19 |
| Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., Ltd. | Geely Automobile Research Institute (Ningbo) Co., Ltd. | 14 |
Co-assignee activity is limited to a handful of pairings, most of them linking a single automaker group with its own component subsidiaries rather than reflecting broad cross-industry collaboration.
Taking this landscape further
The trends above point to where filing is dense and where it is not; the next step is testing a specific design or claim against that map.
Check a design against the leading claims
Run a specific thermal module or control architecture against the highest-filing assignees identified here to see which claims it might infringe or design around.
Analyze a design in EurekaTrack the fastest-growing technology overlaps
Battery and propulsion thermal classes are growing faster than cabin HVAC alone; monitor how these overlaps develop as 2025-2026 filings continue to publish.
Set up a monitoring alertMap white space before filing
Under-claimed branches like control-software integration and cross-loop architectures offer room to file a differentiated claim rather than compete directly with the dense HVAC cluster.
Explore white space in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
The assignee ranking covers 100 companies, with the leader holding 194 records and the fifth-place holder 69. The top five filers together account for 688 records, or 19.9% of the 3,450 records in scope, and the top ten account for 910 records, or 26.4%. That leaves the majority of filing activity spread across a long tail of companies each holding a smaller share, so no single filer dominates the field outright.
Filing activity is growing. Volumes rose from 62 records in 2017 to a peak of 515 in 2024, with a 102% increase between 2021 and 2024 alone. Figures for 2025 and 2026 appear lower only because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so those years are still being filled in rather than showing an actual decline.
Cabin heating and air conditioning (IPC class B60H) is the largest single category, appearing in 40.6% of the 3,450 records in scope. Electric vehicle propulsion thermal management (B60L) follows at 25.2%, and battery and cell thermal management (H01M) at 19.6%. Many records span more than one of these classes, which reflects the industry's move toward shared coolant loops and integrated modules rather than isolated single-system designs.
US20240166088A1, filed by Zhejiang Geely Holding Group and published in 2024, claims a specific integrated channel apparatus for non-heat-pump thermal management modules: a two-component structure using a through-channel-and-non-through-groove pairing to route connecting tubes. It blocks designs that copy this specific channel-and-groove connection geometry in a non-heat-pump module, but it does not cover heat-pump-based modules or alternative channel architectures that avoid this exact connection scheme.
Digital control logic layered onto integrated thermal circuits (G06F, 5.5% of records) and lower-volume mechanical branches like engine cooling (F01P, 5.0%) and vehicle accessory integration (B60R, 3.9%) show comparatively less claim density than the dominant cabin, propulsion and battery clusters. The dataset also records only 10 co-assignee pairings across the whole field, indicating that most companies file independently rather than jointly, which leaves room for a first mover to define a collaborative or cross-domain architecture claim before an incumbent pairing does.
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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.