Heavy-duty road transport – trucks and buses – is critical to the global economy and accounts for a substantial share of transport emissions, with trucks and buses responsible for 31% and 9% of road transport sector emissions, respectively. With approximately 94% of this sector currently powered by fossil fuels, decarbonization represents a crucial opportunity for emissions reduction.
This patent landscape report examines innovation trends in those technologies that are enabling the decarbonization of heavy-duty road transport, analyzing patent data from 2000 to 2024 across four core technology areas: low-emission energy sources (batteries, hydrogen fuel cells, hybrids, and alternative fuels), energy infrastructure, vehicle efficiency, and green digitalization.
The innovation landscape has undergone a fundamental transformation. The share of patents related to decarbonization technologies increased from around 7% of all heavy-duty road transport patents in 2000 to approximately 20% in 2024, with published patent families growing from around 1,200 to almost 15,400 annually. Electrification has emerged as the dominant pathway, evidenced by a large volume of patenting activity and strong growth across the entire electrification value chain. In 2024, batteries accounted for 73% of all low-emission energy source patents, while charging infrastructure and smart grids have lower levels of patenting in comparison, but have growth similar to what is being seen across other major technology areas.
Hydrogen technologies remain smaller in scale, but are gaining momentum, with patenting roughly doubling between 2019 and 2024. This suggests hydrogen could play a role in specific niches, particularly long-haul transport, though the technological and economic barriers remain substantial. Hybrid vehicle patenting has plateaued, increasingly overshadowed by fully electric solutions, while alternative low-carbon fuels show limited innovation activity, indicating they will likely remain niche or transitional solutions.
Patenting activity is geographically concentrated. China and the United States lead in absolute patent volumes. In China, annual patent publications have risen from just 11 in 2000 to around 7,300 in 2024, though Chinese inventors focus primarily on domestic patent protection. India has recorded even higher growth rates over recent years, albeit from a lower baseline, driven by government initiatives supporting electric bus deployment. Sweden and Germany demonstrate exceptionally high relative specialization across multiple decarbonization fields, reflecting their strong truck manufacturing industries.
Large automotive manufacturers and suppliers dominate innovation. Toyota leads patent rankings across all technology areas, followed by Volkswagen (including its subsidiary Traton, with the Scania and MAN brands), Hyundai, Ford, and major suppliers including Bosch and ZF. Notably, no universities or public research institutions appear among the top patent holders, underscoring the mature, industry-driven nature of heavy-duty road transport innovation.
The patent landscape reveals that technological foundations for decarbonizing heavy-duty road transport are advancing rapidly, with battery-electric solutions clearly dominant. A slowdown or plateauing of patenting activity was observed in 2024 across most technology areas, though whether this represents a temporary fluctuation or a longer-term shift remains to be seen. Innovation activity is notably concentrated among major automotive players in a handful of countries, a pattern consistent with sector maturity. At the same time, while infrastructure patenting has grown dramatically, actual deployment remains behind the levels estimated to be necessary for large-scale fleet electrification, highlighting a gap between recent patenting activity and current infrastructure availability.