Key findings
The main findings of this report in terms of global patenting activity in the main decarbonization areas across heavy-duty road transport are as follows:
Decarbonization technologies have gained significant importance within the heavy-duty road transport innovation landscape. Since 2000, the share of patents related to decarbonization technologies has increased from around 7% of all heavy-duty road transport patents to approximately 20% in 2024, reflecting a clear shift in research priorities.
The main research fields – energy infrastructure, vehicle efficiency, and low-emission energy sources – currently show comparable patenting activity. Each field accounted for roughly 5,000–6,000 published patent families in 2024. While patenting activity in vehicle efficiency technologies has stagnated over recent years, innovation in low-emission energy sources and energy infrastructure continues to show strong growth, aside from a dip in 2024.
Electrification is the dominant decarbonization pathway in heavy-duty road transport. This is evidenced by the high volume and growth of patenting activity across the electrification value chain, including batteries as energy sources, charging and smart-grids in energy infrastructure, and advanced electric power- and drive-trains in vehicle efficiency. These trends indicate that battery-electric solutions are likely to remain the central pillar of heavy-duty road transport decarbonization in coming years.
Patenting activity related to hybrid heavy-duty vehicles continues at a meaningful level, reflecting their role as a transitional technology, particularly for urban and regional applications. However, patent volumes have plateaued in recent years, indicating that this technology is increasingly being overshadowed by fully electric solutions.
Hydrogen technologies remain smaller in scale, but are gaining momentum. Patenting related to fuel cells and hydrogen infrastructure has accelerated since around 2019. Continued technological progress could enable hydrogen to play a role in specific heavy-duty niches, particularly long-haul transport.
Innovation activity is geographically concentrated. China, the United States, Japan, Germany and the Republic of Korea dominate patenting in decarbonization technologies in heavy-duty road transport. China has emerged as the leading location due to its strong growth dynamics. India has recorded even higher recent growth rates, albeit from a much lower absolute level. Sweden and Germany stand out for having an exceptionally high level of relative research specialization across multiple decarbonization fields within heavy-duty road transport.
Large automotive manufacturers and suppliers are the central innovation actors. Since 2000, Toyota (including its subsidiaries Hino Motors and Daihatsu), Volkswagen (including its subsidiary Traton, with the Scania and MAN brands) and Hyundai have published the highest number of patent families across those decarbonization technologies analyzed.
Development of decarbonization technologies in heavy-duty road transport
Over the past 25 years, patenting activity related to the decarbonization of heavy-duty road transport has expanded significantly, increasing from around 1,200 published patent families in 2000 to almost 15,400 in 2024 (Figure 2.1). Over the same period, total patenting activity in heavy-duty road transport, including non-decarbonization areas such as conventional combustion engine technologies, rose from 17,000 to almost 78,000 patent families. As a result of the comparatively stronger growth in decarbonization-related research, its share of total heavy-duty road transport patents increased from 7% in 2000 to around 20% in 2024.
Over the same time period, regulations have pushed truck original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) into developing new engine technologies to lower harmful emissions while also decreasing fuel consumption.
This outperformance has, however, largely been driven by developments in the 2000s. Since around 2012, patent growth rates both in decarbonization technologies and heavy-duty road transport overall have been broadly similar. Reinvigorating innovation dynamics in decarbonization technologies is likely to be a key prerequisite for meeting ambitious climate objectives in heavy-duty road transport.
Development in the main decarbonization areas
A comparison of the main decarbonization research areas within heavy-duty road transport shows that energy infrastructure, vehicle efficiency and low-emission energy sources currently exhibit a broadly comparable patenting scale. In 2024, each of these fields accounted for approximately 5,000–6,000 published patent families, up from around 750 patent families in vehicle efficiency technologies and fewer than 400 in both energy infrastructure and low-emission energy sources in 2000. While patenting activity in vehicle efficiency technologies has largely stagnated over recent years, innovation in low-emission energy sources and energy infrastructure has continued to grow strongly, with the exception of a dip in 2024. Patenting activity in green digitalization technologies – defined here as digital inventions that contribute to reducing CO2 emissions in heavy-duty road transport – has also increased steadily, albeit from a much lower absolute level. These technologies play a crucial role in decarbonization efforts, by optimizing the use and integration of low-emission energy sources and energy infrastructure, as well as improving the efficiency of heavy-duty trucks and buses.
In the area of low-emission energy sources, patenting activity related to battery-electric vehicles has clearly emerged as the dominant research focus. Hybrid vehicles continue to attract substantial research activity, but growth has been comparatively modest, perhaps in Europe because European Union regulations are unfavorable to such technology (EU, 2017/2400). Patenting in hydrogen technologies for trucks and buses remains smaller in scale than for battery-electric and hybrid vehicles, although activity has accelerated, with annual patent counts roughly doubling between 2019 and 2024. In contrast, alternative fuels have generated only limited patenting activity over the past two decades.
A similar pattern is observed in energy infrastructure, where innovations in charging technologies and smart grids have reached a larger scale than have hydrogen infrastructure technologies such as pipelines, storage, and refueling stations, despite a recent pickup in hydrogen-related patenting.
Within vehicle efficiency technologies, innovations in electric motors and gearings also dominate the research landscape, although patent growth in this area has been subdued over the past five years. Vehicle design and tire technologies continue to account for sizeable research activity, but show limited growth, while advanced materials exhibit the weakest performance in terms of both patenting levels and growth dynamics.
As mentioned, research activity in digitalization and fleet optimization technologies has expanded steadily over the past decade. However, focusing on growth rates alone obscures significant differences in the absolute scale of patenting across decarbonization technologies.
To address this, the WIPO Patent Momentum Indicator
Top patent locations
Driven by strong patent growth over the last decades, China has become the top patenting location for decarbonization technologies in heavy-duty road transport. Between 2000 and 2024, annual patent family publications by Chinese inventors rose from just 11 to around 7,300. Over the past five years alone (2020–2024), China has published more than 32,000 patent families. Unlike in most other leading research locations, Chinese inventors tend to focus primarily on domestic patent protection.
The United States is the second most important research location for decarbonization technologies in heavy-duty road transport, with 8,755 patent families published since 2020. Japan (6,559), Germany (6,297) and the Republic of Korea (4,390) follow. However, patent growth in these key research locations has been subdued in recent years, with modest growth in the Republic of Korea, Germany, and the United States, and a decline in Japan. In contrast, India has experienced exceptionally strong patent growth, propelling it to sixth place in the ranking, with 3,113 published patent families since 2020.
Sweden and Germany stand out for having exceptionally high levels of relative specialization in decarbonization technologies for heavy-duty road transport, most likely because both countries are home to the major European OEM companies. It is also noteworthy that China’s level of specialization is lower than that of other leading research locations.
Top patent owners
Toyota (including its subsidiaries Hino Motors and Daihatsu) leads the ranking of the top patent owners in heavy-duty decarbonization technologies, with around 4,800 published patent families between 2000 and 2024.
Three Chinese companies appear in the top 20: State Grid, BYD and Geely. The Utility State Grid – a leading innovator in charging and smart grid solutions – is the only company in the top 20 whose core business lies outside the automotive sector. Sweden’s Volvo and France’s Michelin also feature in the top 20 ranking, making them the sole companies headquartered outside the five dominant innovation regions.
Notably, no universities or public research institutions appear among the leading patent owners. Tsinghua University in China is the highest-ranked academic institution, placed 61st, with 354 relevant patent families published since 2000. This underscores the mature and highly industrial nature of heavy-duty road transport innovation, which is predominantly driven by corporate research and development.
Looking at recent dynamics, Volvo, ZF, Geely, BYD, Kia, State Grid, and General Motors stand out, with high patent growth rates since 2019, whereas patenting activity at Michelin has declined noticeably over the same period.