Toyota’s free hydrogen car patents may have little US impact

Toyota announced at the International CES 2015 (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas Monday that the company will be making available thousands of hydrogen fuel cell patents royalty free. Toyota said It will allow royalty-free use of approximately 5,680 fuel cell related patents held globally, including critical technologies developed for the new Toyota Mirai. The list includes approximately 1,970 patents related to fuel cell stacks, 290 associated with high-pressure hydrogen tanks, 3,350 related to fuel cell system software control and 70 patents related to hydrogen production and supply.

“At Toyota, we believe that when good ideas are shared, great things can happen,” said Bob Carter, Senior Vice President of Automotive Operations at Toyota Motor Sales, USA Inc. “The first generation hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, launched between 2015 and 2020, will be critical, requiring a concerted effort and unconventional collaboration between automakers, government regulators, academia and energy providers. By eliminating traditional corporate boundaries, we can speed the development of new technologies and move into the future of mobility more quickly, effectively and economically.”

Toyota has a history of opening its intellectual properties through collaboration. The company said this was instrumental in facilitating the widespread adoption of hybrid vehicles by licensing related patents. This week’s announcement represents the first time that Toyota has made its patents available free of charge and according to Toyota reflects the company’s aggressive support for developing a hydrogen-based society. The move however isn’t expected to have an effect in the US, at least not an immediate one. That’s because the US auto market and the infrastructure is still a long time away from being ready for hydrogen autos on the roads.

“I don’t expect there to be a day-to-day impact on sales,” said John O’Dell, senior editor at Edmunds.com. “It takes several years for a design to come to life from the drawing board, and it’d be great if companies can piggy-back off of someone else’s work.”

While Toyota’s move could help speed the design of other hydrogen cars the bigger issue is the lack of hydrogen fuel as well as charging stations, “Hydrogen cars are not going to replicate the gasoline model,” O’Dell said.

Toyota has provided financial support for the development of a hydrogen fueling infrastructure in California and the northeastern United States. In May 2014, Toyota announced a $7.3 million loan to FirstElement Fuels to support the operations and maintenance of 19 hydrogen fueling stations across California. In November 2014, Toyota announced a collaboration with Air Liquide to develop and supply a phased network of 12 state-of-the-art hydrogen stations targeted for New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island.

Monday’s announcement covers only fuel cell-related patents wholly owned by Toyota. Patents related to fuel cell vehicles will be available for royalty-free licenses until the end of 2020. Patents for hydrogen production and supply will remain open for an unlimited duration. As part of licensing agreements, Toyota will request, but will not require that other companies share their fuel cell-related patents with Toyota for similar royalty-free use.

The post Toyota’s free hydrogen car patents may have little US impact appeared first on 2014 Stingray.

from WordPress http://ift.tt/1L0RyVO

via IFTTT