Onboard Charger Patent Landscape 2026
Onboard Charger Patent Landscape in 2026
The onboard charger patent field is in a growth stage, with 7,227 patent families on record and a 54% expansion in the recent window, led decisively by Hyundai Motor. Activity is highly concentrated among automotive OEMs and their Tier-1 suppliers, with Chinese automakers and technology companies rapidly closing the gap on the Korean incumbent.
Hyundai Motor leads a concentrated but increasingly contested field
Hyundai Motor holds the top position in the onboard charger patent
The top five filers — Hyundai Motor, Huawei Digital Power Technologies, BYD, Great Wall Motor, and Zhejiang Geely Holding Group — together account for 37% of the combined total among the hundred largest filers, signaling a moderately concentrated competitive structure with a pronounced gap between the clear leader and the second tier.
| # | Applicant | Patent families | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hyundai Motor Company | 1,006 | |
| 2 | Huawei Digital Power Technologies Co. Ltd. | 334 | |
| 3 | BYD Co. Ltd. | 327 | |
| 4 | Great Wall Motor Co. Ltd. | 144 | |
| 5 | Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. Ltd. | 129 | |
| 6 | Ford Global Technologies LLC | 106 | |
| 7 | Lear Corporation | 97 | |
| 8 | Kia Corporation | 95 | |
| 9 | GM Global Technology Operations LLC | 93 | |
| 10 | Jaguar Land Rover Ltd. | 80 |
| # | Applicant | Patent families | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Audi AG | 80 | |
| 12 | Hyundai Mobis Co. Ltd. | 69 | |
| 13 | Shenzhen Vmax New Energy Co. Ltd. | 68 | |
| 14 | Robert Bosch GmbH | 66 | |
| 15 | Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. | 66 | |
| 16 | Shinry Technologies Co. Ltd. | 66 | |
| 17 | Beijing Electric Vehicle Co. Ltd. | 64 | |
| 18 | Dongfeng Motor Group Co. Ltd. | 63 | |
| 19 | Kubota Corporation | 62 | |
| 20 | Aisin Corporation | 62 |
Hyundai Motor’s scale, built through deep co-filing with Kia, gives it a portfolio breadth that individual challengers have not yet matched; however, the accelerating momentum of BYD and Huawei Digital Power Technologies suggests the gap at the top is actively narrowing.
Filing counts for 2025 and 2026 are materially under-represented due to publication lag and should not be read as a plateau or decline; the growth trend through 2024 remains the reliable signal. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Sustained filing growth with electric-vehicle propulsion as the dominant technical axis
Annual filing volume and the distribution across IPC technology branches together reveal both the pace of competitive entry and the technical priorities shaping the field.
Annual filing trend
Recorded filings grew from 270 in 2017 to 1,209 in 2024, reflecting consistent year-on-year expansion across the window. The apparent drop in 2025 and 2026 reflects publication lag and is not a real slowdown; treat 2024 as the most reliable recent data point.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
B60L (electric vehicle propulsion) dominates with 7,793 records, followed by H02J (power supply and grid systems) at 2,683 and H02M (power conversion) at 1,378. The breadth of secondary branches — spanning battery management, thermal management, printed circuits, and motor control — shows that onboard charger innovation is increasingly system-level rather than component-only.
↗ 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.
Vehicle to load inverter module based onboard char…
A vehicle to load inverter module (V2LIM) based onboard charger (OBC). The V2LIM based OBC may include an alternating current to direct current (AC/DC) converter having an AC/DC input and an AC/DC output, a direct current to direct current (DC/DC) converter having a DC/DC input and a DC/DC output, and a direct current to alternating current (DC/AC)… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stored energy and charging appliance | 445 |
| 2 | Power grid load management for plug-in vehicles | 369 |
| 3 | Cooling of charging cable | 237 |
| 4 | An integrated dual-output grid-to-vehicle (G2V) an… | 204 |
| 5 | Methods and systems for an integrated charging sys… | 203 |
| 6 | Electric vehicle | 196 |
| 7 | Charging station providing thermal conditioning of… | 193 |
| 8 | Vehicle on-board charger for bi-directional chargi… | 176 |
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 competitive structure means for R&D prioritization
Four dimensions — lifecycle stage, concentration, collaboration, and geography — shape where new investment is likely to find open or contested ground.
Growth stage: annual volume still rising
The field is classified as Growth, with annual filings rising through 2024 and the recent-window growth rate at 54%. This indicates that the competitive window is still open for differentiated filings, particularly in sub-areas not yet dominated by the leading OEMs. The 2025–2026 apparent softening is a publication-lag artifact, not a signal of market saturation.
Growth stageOne dominant player, a competitive second tier
Hyundai Motor’s 1,006-family portfolio sits well ahead of the next cluster. However, the top five’s 37% share of the hundred largest filers leaves substantial room for mid-tier players. BYD (327 families, +70% momentum) and Huawei Digital Power Technologies (334 families, +71% momentum) are the most credible near-term challengers to the Korean bloc.
Moderately concentratedHyundai–Kia axis dominates co-filing; Geely–Geely Research is the leading Chinese pair
Hyundai Motor and Kia (as Kia Motors / Kia Corporation) are by far the most active co-filers, with 751 joint families — a tightly integrated group portfolio. Hyundai Motor also co-files with Myongji University (34 families) and Sungkyunkwan University (15 families), signaling structured academic engagement. On the Chinese side, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group and Geely Automobile Research Institute (Ningbo) share 38 joint families, and Geely also co-files with Zhejiang Remote New Energy Commercial Vehicle Group (17 families).
OEM-led clustersChina is the primary filing office; the US is the key validation market
China leads jurisdictional coverage with 3,545 records, more than double the United States at 1,717. Europe (EPO) at 592, PCT at 521, and Germany at 498 complete the primary enforcement jurisdictions. The heavy China weighting reflects both the scale of domestic EV production and the strategic filing behavior of Chinese applicants; US and EPO filings remain essential for technology validation and licensing leverage.
China-first, US criticalGo 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.
| Applicant | Collaborator | Co-filings |
|---|---|---|
| Hyundai Motor Company | Kia Corporation | 751 |
| Hyundai Motor Company | Kia Corporation | 93 |
| Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. Ltd. | Geely Automobile Research Institute (Ningbo) Co. Ltd. | 38 |
| Hyundai Motor Company | Myongji University Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation | 34 |
| Kia Corporation | Myongji University Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation | 26 |
| Hyundai Motor Company | Yura Corporation Co. Ltd. | 20 |
| Kia Corporation | Yura Corporation Co. Ltd. | 20 |
| Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. Ltd. | Zhejiang Remote New Energy Commercial Vehicle Group Co. Ltd. | 17 |
| Hyundai Motor Company | 成均馆大学校产学协力团 | 15 |
| Kia Corporation | 成均馆大学校产学协力团 | 15 |
Co-filing pairs, ranked by the number of jointly-filed patent families.
Hyundai Motor leads on volume; Huawei Digital Power and BYD lead on recent momentum
The top two players illustrate divergent strategies: Hyundai Motor commands the largest absolute portfolio through deep OEM co-filing, while Huawei Digital Power Technologies and BYD are growing fastest on a recent-period basis.
Hyundai Motor
Hyundai Motor holds 1,006 patent families, the largest in the field, concentrated heavily in B60L53 (electric vehicle charging propulsion) and H02J7 (battery charging systems). Recent momentum is –34% versus the prior three-year period, reflecting a normalization from a high filing peak rather than a strategic retreat — the absolute annual volume remains the highest in the ranking. The Hyundai–Kia co-filing relationship amplifies the effective group footprint considerably.
patent families: 1,006Huawei Digital Power Technologies
Huawei Digital Power Technologies ranks second with 334 patent families and is one of the two fastest-growing top applicants, posting +71% momentum in the recent period. Its technical focus spans B60L53 (EV charging), H02J7 (power supply systems), and notably H02M3 (DC-DC power conversion) — giving it a stronger power-electronics emphasis than the OEM-dominated top tier. This positions it as a supplier-side challenger with differentiated converter and grid-interface expertise.
patent families: 334| Applicant | Recent (3 yrs) | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| Hyundai Motor Company | 211 | ▼ -34% |
| Kia Corporation | 159 | ▼ -47% |
| BYD Co. Ltd. | 184 | ▲ +70% |
| Huawei Digital Power Technologies Co. Ltd. | 186 | ▲ +71% |
| Great Wall Motor Co. Ltd. | 70 | ▲ +46% |
| Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. Ltd. | 78 | ▲ 3.0× vs prior 3-yr |
| Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. | 20 | ▼ -71% |
| Ford Global Technologies LLC | 36 | ▲ +38% |
Under-served technical branches adjacent to the core charging stack
Several IPC branches appear with materially lower representation relative to the dominant B60L and H02J classes, suggesting areas where the patent density is thinner and technically adjacent work is plausible.
H02M · Power Conversion (AC/DC)
H02M covers the AC/DC and DC/DC converter circuits that are physically central to onboard charger hardware, yet it accounts for only about 8% of records compared with the dominant B60L cluster. Given that silicon-carbide and wide-bandgap converter topologies are active areas of power-electronics research, this branch represents an adjacent area where converter-specialist firms or semiconductor companies could establish differentiated positions. Entry would benefit from teams combining power-electronics expertise with automotive qualification knowledge.
Search this in Eureka →B60H · Vehicle Heating and Air Conditioning
B60H captures integrated thermal management — a function increasingly coupled to charger efficiency and battery longevity in EVs — but represents only about 2% of records in this corpus. The intersection of charger waste-heat recovery and cabin thermal systems is technically meaningful and relatively sparse. Applicants with heat-pump or thermal-management backgrounds could find lower-density filing ground here, particularly for bidirectional charger thermal integration.
Search this in Eureka →How leading applicants differ across technology routes
Strength of each leader across the main technology routes.
| Player | B60L 53 · Electric vehicle propulsion | H02J 7 · Power supply & grid systems | B60L 58 · Electric vehicle propulsion | B60L 50 · Electric vehicle propulsion | B60L 3 · Electric vehicle propulsion |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hyundai Motor Company | Strong · 551 | Strong · 332 | Moderate · 268 | Moderate · 132 | Emerging · 98 |
| Kia Corporation | Strong · 471 | Moderate · 232 | Moderate · 215 | Moderate · 103 | Emerging · 55 |
| BYD Co. Ltd. | Strong · 195 | Strong · 125 | Strong · 100 | Moderate · 50 | Moderate · 45 |
| Huawei Digital Power Technologies Co. Ltd. | Strong · 173 | Strong · 115 | Moderate · 51 | Moderate · 46 | Absent |
| Great Wall Motor Co. Ltd. | Strong · 79 | Absent | Strong · 63 | Absent | Moderate · 25 |
| Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. Ltd. | Strong · 58 | Absent | Strong · 67 | Absent | Strong · 41 |
| Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. | Strong · 81 | Strong · 44 | Absent | Moderate · 30 | Absent |
Frequently asked questions
The corpus covers 7,227 patent families globally. This total reflects the full scope of families identified for the onboard charger topic; individual patent records across jurisdictions exceed this figure because a single family can be filed in multiple offices.
Hyundai Motor holds the top position with 1,006 patent families, more than three times the count of the second-ranked applicant, Huawei Digital Power Technologies, at 334 patent families.
Yes. The field is classified as Growth stage. Annual filings expanded from 270 in 2017 to 1,209 in 2024, and the recent-window growth rate stands at 54%. The apparent drop in 2025–2026 data is a publication-lag artifact and does not represent a real slowdown.
China leads with 3,545 records, followed by the United States at 1,717, Europe (EPO) at 592, PCT at 521, and Germany at 498. The high China figure reflects both domestic EV market scale and the filing strategies of Chinese-headquartered applicants.
Among top-ranked applicants, Huawei Digital Power Technologies (+71% recent versus prior three-year period) and BYD (+70%) are the fastest-growing. Zhejiang Geely Holding Group has also expanded at 3.0 times its prior three-year rate. Hyundai Motor and Kia show negative recent momentum (-34% and -47% respectively), consistent with normalization after a period of peak filing.
The most-cited works identified in the corpus address stored energy and charging appliances (445 citations), power grid load management for plug-in vehicles (369 citations), cooling of charging cables (237 citations), integrated dual-output grid-to-vehicle systems (204 citations), and integrated charging system methods (203 citations). A patent on bi-directional vehicle onboard charging is also among the top-cited (176 citations), reflecting the growing strategic importance of vehicle-to-grid capability.
Ready to map your own onboard charger patent landscape?
Join 18,000+ innovators using PatSnap Eureka to map any technology landscape: search 2B+ patents and papers, surface key assignees, and generate a report like this in minutes.
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.