Onboard Charger for Commercial Trucks Patent Landscape
The patent landscape for onboard chargers in commercial trucks is extremely narrow — 14 patent families in scope — and is almost entirely controlled by Rivian-affiliated entities, with the United States as the dominant filing jurisdiction. Activity emerged sharply from 2022 and remains a nascent, highly concentrated field with meaningful adjacent white space in vehicle propulsion control and load-handling applications.
Rivian entities hold commanding control over a nascent, tightly concentrated field
The corpus spans 14 patent families, with Rivian Holdings LLC alone accounting for 10 patent families — the single largest position in this space. Rivian Automotive LLC holds an additional 4 patent families, meaning the two Rivian-affiliated entities together account for every ranked applicant in the top tier.
The top five filers account for 100% of the ranked applicants visible in this query’ combined total, reflecting extreme concentration with no meaningful second tier. There is no evidence of incumbent automotive OEMs, tier-1 suppliers, or charging infrastructure specialists establishing positions here.
| # | Applicant | Patent families | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rivian Holdings LLC | 10 | |
| 2 | Rivian Automotive LLC | 4 |
Rivian’s dual-entity structure — separating IP holding from operating entity — signals a deliberate IP governance strategy typical of companies protecting core EV platform technology. For any new entrant, this concentration means the visible positions are already staked on key system architectures.
Patent records filed in the most recent 18–24 months are subject to publication lag and likely undercount actual activity; the 2024–2025 figures should be treated as preliminary rather than indicative of a real slowdown.
Activity burst from 2022 onward; electric propulsion dominates the technology mix
The filing trend and technology composition together characterize this as an early-stage field: activity did not begin until 2022, and the visible IPC class reflects foundational EV propulsion architecture rather than charger-specific sub-systems.
Annual filing trend
Zero filings are recorded from 2017 through 2021, followed by a sharp onset of activity with 6 patent families filed in 2022 and 5 in 2023. The 2024 and 2025 figures (2 and 1 respectively) reflect publication lag and should not be read as a real decline. The field’s entire documented history spans roughly three years.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
B60L (Electric vehicle propulsion) is the visible class, present across all 14 patent families, confirming that charger systems are being claimed as integral parts of EV propulsion architecture. H01M (Batteries, cells and fuel cells) and B60R (Vehicles, parts and accessories) form the secondary cluster, while B60K, B60P, G05B, and G07C each represent sparse adjacent branches with three or fewer records.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaHighly cited patent families surfaced by the query
Citation-heavy patent families returned by the query. Use this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents.
High voltage distribution box
A pack-agnostic high voltage distribution apparatus can include an electrical component. The electrical component can be configured to control a first battery pack and a second battery pack different than the first battery pack. (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Trailer powerpack with range extender | 5 |
| 2 | Battery management systems and methods | 4 |
| 3 | Battery pack and electrical components | 3 |
| 4 | High voltage distribution box | 2 |
| 5 | Trailer powerpack with range extender | 2 |
| 6 | High voltage distribution box | 1 |
| 7 | Battery pack and electrical components | 1 |
| 8 | Battery management systems and methods | 1 |
Ranked by total forward citations. Citation counts favour older and broadly cited patent families, and broad or adjacent patents may appear when they match the search scope. Treat this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents. Some patent titles may be shown in their original, non-English language where an accurate translation could not be guaranteed.
What the structure means for R&D investment decisions
The combination of extreme concentration, nascent filing history, and sparse adjacent branches creates a specific set of strategic signals for R&D teams evaluating entry or differentiation in this space.
Nascent field with no established life-cycle stage confirmed
Filing activity only began in 2022, giving this field a history of roughly three years. The lifecycle stage cannot be formally assigned from available evidence, but the filing onset pattern — zero activity for five years followed by a rapid burst — is consistent with early-stage technology crystallization. Engineers should expect foundational claim architectures to still be forming.
Early-stageSingle-entity dominance leaves almost no competitive buffer
Rivian Holdings LLC and Rivian Automotive LLC together account for all ranked applicants in scope. The top five filers’ share of the ranked applicants visible in this query is 100%, meaning there is no dispersed competitive field to benchmark against. Any new entrant faces a landscape where foundational system-level claims are already held by one corporate family, requiring either design-around strategies or differentiation into adjacent branches.
Highly concentratedNo co-filing activity detected in available evidence
The collaboration data contains no recorded co-applicant relationships, indicating that development in this field has so far been conducted entirely within single-entity boundaries. This absence of cross-company or industry-academic co-filings suggests the ecosystem has not yet matured to the point of consortium or standards-body involvement. Evidence pending on whether informal collaborations exist outside the patent record.
No co-filers detectedUS-centric filing with minimal international extension
Eleven of the jurisdictional records are filed in the United States, with single records each in Canada, Europe (EPO), and WIPO (PCT). The limited PCT and EPO coverage suggests either early-stage internationalization or a deliberate US-first protection strategy. Markets such as the EU and key Asian truck markets appear unprotected at present, which may represent either a gap or a deliberate commercial prioritization.
US-visibleGo beyond the landscape: Eureka’s TRIZ Solution agent breaks down an R&D problem and returns patented concept solutions, each with a technical approach and cited patent & literature evidence.
Co-filing pairs, ranked by the number of jointly-filed patent families.
Assignee snapshot from the current evidence set
The applicants below are visible in this query result. Because the evidence set is relatively small, read this section as a directional snapshot rather than a full competitive ranking.
Rivian Holdings LLC
Rivian Holdings LLC holds 10 patent families, representing the visible position in this corpus. Its technology focus is concentrated in B60L 50 (electric vehicle propulsion) and H01M 10 (batteries, cells and fuel cells), alongside B60L 58, indicating claims spanning both charging architecture and battery management integration. Rivian Intellectual Property Holdings (the translated entity) entered as a new entrant in the momentum data, with 9 recent-period patent families, signaling accelerating IP formalization.
families: 10Rivian Automotive LLC
Rivian Automotive LLC holds 4 patent families and is the operating-entity counterpart to the Holdings entity. Individual inventor Fethi Rehouma (appearing under two name variants in the momentum data) also enters as a new entrant with recent filings focused on B60L 50 and B60K 1, suggesting independent inventor activity in vehicle propulsion and drive integration adjacent to onboard charging. This is the only non-Rivian activity visible in the evidence.
families: 4Frequently asked questions
The corpus contains 14 patent families in scope. This is a very narrow body of art, reflecting the early-stage nature of purpose-built onboard charging systems for commercial trucks.
Rivian Holdings LLC leads with 10 patent families, followed by Rivian Automotive LLC with 4 patent families. These are the only two entities appearing in the ranked applicant list, both affiliated with the Rivian corporate family.
No filings are recorded between 2017 and 2021. Activity began in 2022 with 6 patent families filed, followed by 5 in 2023. The 2024 and 2025 figures are subject to publication lag and should be treated as preliminary.
The United States is visible in with 11 jurisdictional records. Canada, Europe (EPO), and WIPO (PCT) each have one record, indicating very limited international protection outside the US at this stage.
B60L (Electric vehicle propulsion) is the visible class, present across all 14 patent families. The least-covered adjacent branches include G05B (Control and regulating systems) and G07C (Time/attendance and checking devices), each with only 2 patent records.
No co-applicant or co-filing relationships are recorded in the available evidence. All activity to date appears to have been filed by single entities, suggesting the ecosystem has not yet reached consortium or collaborative development stages.
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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.
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