There have been a lot of rumors and speculation over the recent weeks surrounding Apple’s new plans to start producing its own electric car. Although there are no hard facts about these rumors or about the proposed vehicle but even if this electronics giant wants a bigger share in the vehicle battery market, the company will be very surprised to find that its main competitor will be Samsung.
Recently there was a research into the 4761 automotive related patents from 1990 to 2014 from Samsung, Google, Uber and Tesla in order to examine Apple’s position in the field.
All these companies have been increasing their fillings in recent years in order to protect their discoveries but Samsung is the one that is focusing on the car business since 2010. Looking at 2014’s performance of the South Korean brand we see that the company registered 600 patents compared to around 100 from some of its competitors.
Apart from this the South Korean giant has also registered 3094 auto related patents between 1990 and 2014. Moreover the company has recently been focusing on battery and fuel cell technology. The emphasis in this area by the company is because innovations in the field might be applied to the Korean brand’s other businesses such as mobile phones.
Meanwhile on the hand Apple just holds 275 auto-related patents and the company’s priority has been on device integration, electronic communication and navigation in the past few years.
The research also argues that Apple should buy Tesla if the American giant wants to enter into the auto business because the two can complement each other. The EV Company right now holds more patents in batteries then Apple.
