Latest Patents From Global Car Manufacturers

Not every patent filed by an automaker makes it into a production vehicle — but they’re never filed without reason. Each idea plants a seed that may blossom when the market is ready. Here’s a roundup of the most intriguing recent EV-related patents from Ford, BMW, and Hyundai, sourced from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and originally spotted by Motor1.com.

Ford’s Next-Generation Metal-Oxide Battery Technology

Ford has filed a patent describing a new type of metal-oxide battery — a class of energy storage that relies on a reversible chemical reaction between pure lithium (or another metal) and oxygen. While this concept shares similarities with conventional lithium-ion batteries, there are key differences worth understanding:

• Standard lithium-ion batteries chemically bind lithium to other materials (carbon, cobalt, iron phosphates, etc.), which adds weight but improves safety.
• Metal-oxide designs aim to strip away those extra elements to achieve a higher energy density.
• Ford’s patented design splits the battery into two separate blocks — one containing lithium metal, the other holding oxygen sealed within an absorbent material.
• A closed liquid system connects the two blocks, functioning similarly to how blood and hemoglobin carry oxygen through the body.

This architecture could potentially yield a battery with significantly greater capacity than anything currently available — a major leap forward for EV range anxiety.

BMW’s Waste Heat Recovery System for EV Cabin Heating

While breakthrough batteries are still largely confined to laboratories, energy efficiency remains a critical challenge for electric vehicles today — especially in winter. Electric heaters and even heat pumps draw heavily from the battery, significantly reducing driving range in cold climates.

BMW’s patent proposes an elegant solution: instead of relying purely on electrical heating, the system captures and repurposes waste heat generated by the electric motor and power electronics to warm the cabin. Key advantages of this approach include:

• Reduced drain on the main battery pack during cold weather.
• More efficient use of energy that would otherwise be lost as heat.
• A potential increase in real-world winter driving range.

Hyundai’s Variable-Speed EV Transmission Patent

Hyundai is taking a different approach to EV efficiency — one that revisits the concept of variable-speed transmissions. While electric motors technically don’t need a gearbox (a simple reduction unit usually suffices), adding selectable gear ratios can improve both overall efficiency and dynamic performance.

Hyundai’s patented transmission works as follows:

1. Torque from the electric motor is sent to a servo clutch capable of smoothly regulating power delivery.
2. Power is then routed through a set of gears before reaching the output shaft.
3. The system is designed to change gears without interrupting the power flow — all while keeping the construction relatively simple and cost-effective.

This isn’t an entirely new idea in the EV world. The record-breaking Genovation GXE (a Corvette conversion) retained a mechanical gearbox to push its top speed higher, and the Rimac Concept_One/S — one of the most powerful electric cars ever built — used a two-range semi-automatic gearbox to enable its breathtaking acceleration. Hyundai’s patent aims to bring similar benefits to a broader, more affordable market.

Freescale Semiconductor’s Energy-Harvesting Smart Tire

Rounding out this patent roundup is a creative concept from Freescale Semiconductor. The American company has patented a system built around a flexible lever mounted inside the tire — attached on one side to the inner tire surface and on the other to the rim. As the tire rolls and deforms under load, the lever transfers that mechanical movement to a small electricity-generating element.

To be clear about what this technology is — and isn’t:

• It won’t generate large amounts of energy — unlike regenerative suspension systems, which recover meaningful amounts of heat energy dissipated by shock absorbers.
• The energy output isn’t free — some additional rolling resistance is introduced.
• The target use case is low-power applications, such as tire pressure monitoring sensors (TPMS).
• In the longer term, the technology could power smart tires equipped with onboard AI — a concept that may not be as far-fetched as it sounds.

This is a translation. You can read the original here: https://www.drive.ru/technic/58d3ee9eec05c4b66100006f.html