Although they still a relatively new player in the auto industry, Tesla Motors have become one of the leaders in the electric vehicle market, with their sophisticated technology that makes their vehicles go further on a single charge and perform better than most other electric cars. Ever since it was established, the company has been trying to convince people that electric cars are the future of the auto industry, and help reduce the extremely harmful effect that vehicles have on the environment. However, even though Tesla has been hoping that its success will prompt other car makers to ramp up their efforts for development of new electric car models, resulting in a more significant growth of the EV market, they have been very slow with adopting EV technology.
The disappointingly slow adoption of electric vehicles, by both the auto industry and consumers, has forced Tesla to make a pretty radical and unexpected move. In a recent blog post, the electric car maker’s founder and CEO, Elon Musk, announced that the company is set to share all of its technology patents with anyone who wants to use them to develop electric vehicles. In a bid to promote electric vehicles, and spur development of more advanced battery and charging technologies. Currently, Tesla has over 200 electric car patents, and has filed another 280 patent applications.
Musk said that he plans to release the designs for one of the most innovative technologies developed by Tesla – its Supercharger Stations, a fast-charging system that can deliver 50% charge in about 20 minutes. At the moment, there are about 100 Supercharger stations across the country. Tesla wants to share the technology behind this system with other companies that manufacture electric cars, in an effort to contribute to a further expansion of the EV charging infrastructure. Car makers that will be open to the idea of adopting a technology developed by their competitors, will have to design their vehicles in a way that would allow them to be recharged at a much higher speed and higher power levels than the conventional charging stations. Tesla’s stations deliver DC power at 135 kW, and they will soon become even faster.
This means that all other car makers will have to use the Supercharger standard, which according to Tesla, should lead to creation of one universal charging standard. If there is a unique charging standard that will be common for the whole electric car industry, it will undoubtedly make charging an electric car much more convenient, which should lead to a more widespread adoption of electric vehicles.
While opening up its technology patents and allowing its competitors to use them to expand their electric car programs might seem like somewhat of a self-destructive move from Tesla, as these patents are exactly what gives Tesla a huge competitive advantage, it’s actually a pretty smart business decision that makes a lot of sense a lot of sense economically in the long term. Tesla’s end goal is to expand the electric vehicle market, making EVs mainstream, and in order for that to happen, the whole auto industry will have to step up its game and put a lot more focus on the development of electric cars. The company believes that this strategy will help take EVs out of the niche market and bring them to the mass market, resulting in a continuously growing demand for electric cars, which would clearly be of great benefit to Tesla.