Battles for key patents

The 15 biggest car manufacturers worldwide published a record number of 1151 patents for electric and hybrid vehicles in 2011. This was discovered in a study conducted by the Munich law firm. From a German point of view it is particularly noticeable that the Japanese groups Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Suzuki hold a market share of about 75%; Daimler, BMW and VW are lagging far behind with a total of 7.5%.