Patents and Networks: Case of Identification of Core Industry Actors for Electric Vehicle Battery by Application of Knowledge Flow

Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) have been slow to diffuse into the international market. In order to meet the demand of the growing use of green energy technologies, different industries must be involved in this innovation system. This chapter presents a study integrating patent analysis and social network analysis, which identifies the core industry and companies developing different kinds of battery technologies to forecast future battery developing trends. We find that, at present, none of the current battery options can fulfill the market demand. Even the Lithium Ion (Li-ion) battery, which is the fastest growing and most promising version, still has some problems. It is found that most core companies are Japanese, followed by American companies.