ICE & Hybrid Vehicle Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
- 39.7% concentration at the top. The five leading assignees account for 39.7% of all 135,497 records in scope — the rest is a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants.
- Filings down 42% since 2021. Complete-year filings fell from 626 in 2021 to 364 in 2024, a -42% move that predates the still-filling 2025-2026 window.
- Engine control still dominates the claim space. F02D engine-control filings alone cover 6.1% of all records, ahead of hybrid/joint vehicle control (B60W) at 5.2%.
Filing growth compares 2021 (626 records) with 2024 (364) — 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 135,497 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
A mature filing base with a shrinking annual intake
Internal-combustion and hybrid vehicle control is one of the deepest patent categories in automotive engineering, spanning 135,497 published records from 2015 onward. The search combines core internal-combustion terminology with vehicle-system signals — speed, traction torque, battery state, road environment — so the corpus captures both pure engine-control art and the hybrid and connected-vehicle logic layered on top of it. Filing activity peaked in 2018 at 828 and has been declining since; the most recent years are necessarily undercounted because publication trails filing by roughly eighteen months.
Ownership is concentrated but not dominated by a single filer: the leading assignee holds 18,686 records, more than three times the count at fifth place (5,331), and the gap widens further by tenth place (1,821). That shape — one clear leader, a shoulder of established mid-size filers, then a long tail — is typical of a technology area built up incrementally over decades rather than one defined by a recent breakthrough.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same corpus: how many records publish each year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim weight.
A decade past its filing peak
Annual filings ran from 770 in 2017 to a peak of 828 in 2018, then eased through the following years to 364 by 2024 — a -42% move from the 626 recorded in 2021. Treat 2025 and 2026 as incomplete rather than as evidence of continued decline; the figures for those years will keep rising as publication catches up.
Engine control and hybrid drive lead the class mix
F02D (engine control) touches 6.1% of all records and B60W (hybrid/joint vehicle control) 5.2%, ahead of B60K propulsion architecture at 3.5% and B60L electric propulsion at 2.4%. Transmission (F16H), fuel supply (F02M) and exhaust treatment (F01N) each sit near 1.5%, showing that mechanical subsystems still draw steady but secondary claim attention behind control logic.
Shares are the percentage of the 135,497 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Internal-Combustion & Hybrid Vehicles Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about internal-combustion & hybrid vehicles patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaA representative filing and the most-cited prior art
Control device for in-vehicle internal combustion engine
A control device for an engine equipped with an intake valve variable timing mechanism that automatically stops and restarts the engine. When the timing mechanism malfunctions at a position closer to the advanced angle than the most-retarded position, the control unit blocks automatic engine stop, preventing the vibration and misfire that would follow an uncontrolled restart.Filed by Toyota; illustrates how stop-start control logic is claimed around specific failure modes of variable valve timing rather than the mechanism itself.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20100256852A1 | Platoon vehicle management | 999 |
| 2 | US5343970A | Hybrid electric vehicle | 875 |
| 3 | US20110190972A1 | Grid unlock | 708 |
| 4 | US5995895A | Control of vehicular systems in response to anticipated conditions predicted using predetermined geo-referenc… | 674 |
| 5 | US6112152A | RFID system in communication with vehicle on-board computer | 572 |
| 6 | US6209672B1 | Hybrid vehicle | 532 |
| 7 | US4335429A | Control apparatus for engine/electric hybrid vehicle | 491 |
| 8 | US20010056544A1 | Electrically controlled automated devices to operate, slow, guide, stop and secure, equipment and machinery f… | 487 |
| 9 | US6424157B1 | System and method for monitoring a vehicle battery | 477 |
| 10 | US20030147534A1 | Method and apparatus for in-vehicle device authentication and secure data delivery in a distributed vehicle n… | 471 |
Citation counts favour older filings that have had longer to accumulate citations inside this searched corpus — read them as markers of influence on later filers, not as a ranking of current technical importance.
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Three read-outs from the trend, the class split and the receiving-office mix.
The complete-year decline is real, but 2025-2026 aren't evidence of anything yet
Filings dropped from 626 in 2021 to 364 in 2024. That three-year move is measurable and complete. The 2025 and 2026 counts shown in the chart are still filling in behind an eighteen-month publication lag, so they understate whatever is actually being filed now.
Engine control still outweighs hybrid control in raw claim volume
F02D engine-control filings cover 6.1% of the 135,497 records, versus 5.2% for B60W hybrid/joint vehicle control. Both figures are shares of the same record total, not of each other, and a record can sit in both classes at once.
Filing is heavily US-weighted, with Europe a distant second
The United States receiving office accounts for 12,899 filings, well ahead of the EPO's 4,374 and the UK's 1,050. WIPO/PCT filings (925) sit below the UK count, suggesting most applicants are choosing direct national or regional routes over a PCT-first strategy in this field.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to internal-combustion & hybrid vehicles patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
A concentrated top tier over a long tail
The ranking covers 100 companies, counted in records rather than in raw document counts, and the picture at the top is one of established scale rather than recent entry.
Five assignees hold two-fifths of the corpus
The top five combined account for 53,810 records, or 39.7% of all 135,497 records in scope. That share sits alongside a tenth-place count of just 1,821, underlining how quickly volume falls away outside the leading names.
Even the largest filers are pulling back in the latest year
Recent-year momentum data shows sharp year-on-year drops across major assignees, several down to zero or near-zero latest-year counts. Read this cautiously: the latest year is the most publication-lag-affected in the whole dataset, so a drop here reflects reporting delay as much as any real change in filing intent.
Cross-filing is limited and mostly intra-group
Only ten co-assignee pairs appear in the data, and the strongest pairings link an OEM to its own component or research subsidiary rather than to an external partner. That pattern points to internal R&D structuring more than to joint-venture filing strategy.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Toyota Motor Corporation | 3 | -94% |
| Honda Motor Co., Ltd. | 1 | -92% |
| Jaguar Land Rover Limited | 1 | -75% |
| Ford Global Technologies, LLC | 0 | -100% |
| Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
| GM Global Technology Operations LLC | 0 | -100% |
| Denso Corporation | 0 | -100% |
| Cummins Inc. | 0 | -100% |
Turning this landscape into a filing or freedom-to-operate decision
The class and assignee data point to where claim space is dense and where it thins out — the next step is usually a targeted search inside the branches that matter to a specific product roadmap.
Run a freedom-to-operate check on a specific subsystem
Engine control and hybrid/joint vehicle control carry the densest claim coverage in this corpus; a narrower search inside F02D or B60W subclasses will surface the specific claims that matter for a given design.
Search this landscape in EurekaTrack the leading filers' recent activity
Momentum figures show sharp pullbacks at the top of the ranking in the latest year, which may reflect publication lag rather than reduced R&D. Monitoring filing behaviour over the next few quarters will clarify which.
Set up assignee monitoring in EurekaCheck the under-claimed branches before committing R&D spend
Sub-areas like fault-tolerant valve-timing restart logic or predictive route-based load scheduling show thinner filing density than the core control classes, which may mean either open space or simply less commercial interest.
Explore white space in EurekaCommon questions about this patent landscape
The ranking of 100 companies in this dataset shows one clear leader with 18,686 records, more than three times the count held by the fifth-placed assignee (5,331). The top five combined hold 39.7% of all 135,497 records in scope, and the top ten hold 50.9%. Beyond that tenth position, counts fall away quickly into a long tail of smaller filers, which is typical for a technology area built up over many years rather than by a single recent entrant.
Complete-year data shows a real decline: filings dropped from 626 in 2021 to 364 in 2024, a -42% move. However, filing peaked earlier, in 2018, at 828 records, so the decline has been underway for some time. The 2025 and 2026 figures in this dataset are still filling in because publication typically lags actual filing by around eighteen months, so those two years should not be read as confirming a steeper drop.
Engine control (IPC class F02D) is the largest single class, covering 6.1% of all 135,497 records, followed by hybrid and joint vehicle control (B60W) at 5.2%. Vehicle propulsion and drive architecture (B60K) and electric vehicle propulsion (B60L) follow at 3.5% and 2.4% respectively. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares do not sum to 100% and should be read against the total record count, not against each other.
The class data points to comparatively thinner coverage in areas like fault-tolerant variable valve timing restart logic, exhaust aftertreatment thermal management during stop-start cycling, and predictive route-based engine load scheduling, relative to the dense coverage in core engine control and hybrid control classes. Thin filing density in a sub-area can mean genuine white space, but it can also reflect lower commercial interest, so it is worth checking recent assignee activity in that specific sub-area before committing R&D resources there.
It is moderately concentrated at the very top but has a long tail below that. The five leading assignees together hold 39.7% of all 135,497 records in scope, and the top ten hold 50.9%. Cross-company collaboration is limited — only ten co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, and the strongest ones link an OEM to its own subsidiary rather than to an outside partner, suggesting most of the field's IP activity happens inside individual corporate groups rather than through joint filings.
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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.