Toyota claims to be ‘opening the door to the hydrogen future’ by making more than 5,600 of its hydrogen fuel cell-related patents royalty free.
The company’s senior vice president of automotive operations, Bob Carter said that the motivation behind the move was to was to help share “good ideas” in order to make “great things happen”.
According to Toyota, the list of available patents will include approximately 1,970 related to fuel cell stacks, 290 associated with high-pressure hydrogen tanks, 3,350 related to fuel cell system software control and 70 patents related to hydrogen production and supply.
“The first generation hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, launched between 2015 and 2020, will be critical, requiring a concerted effort and unconventional collaboration between automakers, government regulators, academia and energy providers,” explained Carter. “By eliminating traditional corporate boundaries, we can speed the development of new technologies and move into the future of mobility more quickly, effectively and economically.”
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Toyota’s announcement echoes a similar move by Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company Tesla, which opened up its EV patents last year for the ‘advancement of electric vehicle technology’.
Toyota says that it will ask other companies interested in using the royalty free patents to share their fuel cell-related patents with them but will not require it.
Toyota claims that its new hydrogen fuel cell Mirai vehicle will ‘usher in the future’ as it believes that the technology offers all the benefits of a traditional combustion engine but only emits water as a byproduct.
Toyota’s hydrogen-powered Mirai:
