Featured Toyota to give royalty-free access to hybrid-vehicle patents

Toyota to give royalty-free access to hybrid-vehicle patents | PriusChat

 

Official Press Release

Toyota Promotes Global Vehicle Electrification by Providing Nearly 24,000 Licenses Royalty-Free | Corporate | Global Newsroom | Toyota Motor Corporation Official Global Website

 

kind of like kids dropping their jelly toast face down, then telling their siblings, "you want this?" .... Gee thanks.

it's an intriguing strategy, possibly taken (stolen?) from the Tesla Playbook - as they seem to be one of the first to open all their patents in the world of electrified transportation.
Tesla Goes Open Source: Elon Musk Releases Patents To 'Good Faith' Use
Talk about late to the party .... that example is almost from ½ decade ago. Besides Tesla, others have been opening up their intellectual vaults as well.
IIRC, Ford & Toyota cross licensed their Synergy drives because they were so similar .... making it cheaper than suing each other. So, no - nothing stolen there.
Segway back to stolen, I wonder how Toyota's (technically - but only after losing) out-of-court settlement with mister Severinski will be affected.
The Hybrid Inventor Who Sued Toyota - And Won | WIRED
It is rumored that the courts were awarding much more than the roughly $100 per car on each of the Toyota/Ford/Lexus type hybrids (plus attorney fees) via the out-of-court settlement. You got to really have your game on to shake down Toyota
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"Use it or lose it."

Give it away is close enough.

Bob Wilson

 

Why is this posted here? It belongs in the hybrid/ev news section.

That's because it's Electrek. I have a very poor opinion of them and their thinly veiled breathless Tesla support.

 

Don't forget this is a global - not USA strategy.

TOYOTA are from Japan, the USA is just one of their markets. I think the biggest Auto market is China, probably followed by India.

The BEV charging infrastructure is 10 yrs away at least here, and more than that in India.

Depends on where you are as to whether BEVs make sense.

Here in Australia, where, last I could find, we had 86% dirty electricity, a PRIUS is far better from both a fiscal point of view, as well as for the environment.

Here the only BEVs available weigh almost an extra tonne, are huge cars compared with my PRIUS. And cost up to $200,000. (Though I think the Jaguar might be here by now - none in my local showroom, and the LEAF is coming in a few months.)

Oh, and there's almost no EV infrastructure here, and our electricity prices are over double that in USA.

 

how are prius sales doing there?

 

I saw that - but it's only really talking about the USA marketplace - TOYOTA is talking world-wide.

PRIUS is selling poorly, but it's not helped by the <$40,000 price tag, when you can drive away in a Camry Hybrid starting at less than $33,000.

- but Camry, last I heard was selling 48% hybrids, and that's because they ran out of stock. Corolla was in the 30s%, again stifled by stocks.

RAV4 hybrid is here any day now, and they're expecting it to be a good seller - replacing the Diesel which is dropped from the range.

 

why is prius so expensive?

 

we're no China - but jeez - we do buy a good amount of electric cars - or are we now nothing more than chopped liver .... the proving ground for more fool cell fails.
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Since "most" car buyers buy ICE, this sounds like good news...to me at least. Most of bought a Prius because it was the only reliable alternative. For those moving on from hybrid to BEV...good for you. For the other ICE folks, at least they may now have options not provided buy other mfgs not inclined to invest in the tech. For the environmentalists...less smog and gas per vehicle.
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if anyone seriously takes them up on it. it is still a huge investment for any non hybrid manufacturer, to try to capture a small percentage of a dwindling small percentage market.

 

No idea - go to buy a $31,000 PETROL Camry, and they'll have plenty to choose from and you can talk a few thousand off. At this stage, there aren't many Hybrid Camrys in dealers - and you pay more-or-less the full price, a bit of negotiating maybe.

PRIUS - not many dealers hold them in stock, so have to be ordered, at which you pay full price. I don't see the Gen 4 often - but much more than TESLAs. I just checked the nearest 4 dealers for PRIUS - one has a 2018 and a 2019, the others have none.

Not just China either - just about every manufacturer (worldwide) is talking about hybrids and EVs - and many are still developing them. If TOYOTA opening up their Patents speeds that up, so much the better.

 

Okay, say all these companies take them up. Who do you think has the molds for the Synergy Drive case, for the gears, the programming for the CNC Machining, or for the surface grinding, or for the manufacturing of proprietary electronics, Yours Truly, Toyota. Seems to me it's a Hail Mary to drum up a bit of business - but there's certainly no faulting them for that.
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Might mean they've got more money to spend on the fruitless hydrogen plunge.

But patents run much deeper than the actual design of cases etc - but to the technology, the computer wizardry etc.

 

Just thinking - this is a week after the Chinese Court ruled:
... CHINESE car makers have been put on notice by a Beijing court ruling over one copycat car that borrows the design of a mainstream European brand.

Jiangling Motor Holding (JMH) has been ordered to stop selling, manufacturing and marketing the Landwind X7, which shares design cues with the Range Rover Evoque ...".

Maybe just a coincidence.

 

Yay for Chinese replacement transaxles?
Made out of cheap metal with minimal wire size for the motors, of course.

 

Toyota also opened up their FCEV patents not too long ago.

Don't know if it was mentioned here yet, but Toyota has restrictions on uses for these open patents. Many of them can be applied to a BEV, but you aren't allowed to do so.

BEVs aren't a solution for all, but many global companies already have their own hybrid systems. For those that don't have one, why choose HSD, with its high per unit cost, when a parallel system can get the same result for lower cost. Then Toyota's system is not a good match of commercial vehicles; Ford is using a parallel system over their power-split one for trucks.

China's EV plans allow plain old hybrids, even mild ones. So some companies may see an advantage if they don't have their own hybrid system yet. It let's them invest more in BEVs.

 

I have found that mentioned no where except here. Toyot hopes to make money off support & design assistance. That was clear from their press release.
I saw no RESTRICTION blocking BEVs.. They were just not mentioned in the example list.

 

Sandy Munro pointed out these may be shitty patents that Toyota gives out to lead the foolish to dead ends.

Bob Wilson