Ford has announced that to help accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) it will make its technology patents available to rivals.
However, unlike Tesla, Ford has said it will charge for the privilege.
Ford is willing to offer access to over 1,500 patents that protect technologies related to regenerative braking, battery management and more.
Kevin Layden, director of Ford’s electrification projects, commented “By sharing our research with other companies, we will accelerate the growth of electrified vehicle technology and deliver even better products to customers”.
Elon Musk and Tesla chose to make their EV patents completely open source in 2014. Ford have not gone this far and have said they will license their patents instead.
They defended this decision, saying that they are “proud of the work we do” and therefore, feel charging for the patents is appropriate.
FT
