Toyota makes Hydrogen Fuel Cell patents FREE

Toyota has decided to open up its hydrogen fuel cell patents to rival car makers fro free in an effort to advance fuel cell technology in the mainstream.

Toyota makes Hydrogen Fuel Cell patents FREE to use

Just recently, Elon Musk announced that Tesla would free up its electric vehicle patents to allow car manufacturers to make quicker, and cheaper, advances in their own EV technology in an effort to make EVs mainstream. And now Toyota are playing the same game too.

Toyota has announced that it will allow thousands of hydrogen fuel cell patents – 5,680 of them, to be precise – that Toyota has developed to be freely accessed by rival car makers in an effort to progress hydrogen fuel cell technology.

The list of patents includes 1970 related to fuel stacks, 290 with high-pressure tanks, 3350 related to software and 70 related to hydrogen production and supply, which will be made available to car makers, parts suppliers and energy companies until 2020 (and energy companies will be able to use the hydrogen production and supply patents indefinitely).

Bob Carter, Toyota Senior VP of Automotive Operations, said:

At Toyota, we believe that when good ideas are shared, great things can happen,” said Bob Carter, Senior Vice President of Automotive Operations at Toyota Motor Sales, USA Inc.
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.
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.

It’s a bold move by Toyota, and one which could see both fuel cell technology for cars and commercial vehicles advance more rapidly, and encourage the establishment of viable refuelling networks.