Most new car patents in Germany still for diesel and petrol engines
Most new patents in Germany’s car sector in 2017 were registered for diesel and petrol engines, far outnumbering patents for electric vehicles, Hagen Strauß reports for the Aachener Nachrichten. German manufacturers registered 2,108 patents for combustion engines, up 15 percent on the previous year, while foreign companies registered a further 2,136 patents for combustion engines. Domestic patents for electric vehicles amounted to just 170, an increase of 22 percent, the article says. Combined with foreign patents, the figure rises to 467 e-mobility patents, only a little over a tenth of those for combustion engines. According to Germany’s patent office, many of the entries for combustion engines deal with emissions treatment and reducing the amount of nitrogen oxide in exhaust fumes – the central issue in the dieselgate scandal.
See the CLEW dossier The Energiewende and German carmakers for background.