Future Trends in RD on Battery Technologies for Electric Mobility - Evidence from Evolutionary Patterns

摘要

Batteries are regarded as key technology enabling electric mobility. However, their low specific energy constitutes a major obstacle for achieving the required longer driving range. In recent years, the search for next generation batteries has been intensified globally, whereby the plethora of materials and cell designs is located at different stages of the R&D process. Hence, providing possible pathways for future R&D of various battery technologies represents an urgent task for technology management in the field of electric mobility. Two currently promising technologies are lithium-sulphur (Li-S) and lithium-air (Li-air) batteries. Li-S batteries are supposed to reach market maturity in the medium term while Li-air batteries seem to be a long term option, so that both technologies are currently in different stages of R&D. This study aims at anticipating trends in R&D on battery technologies for electric mobility by means of patent analysis focusing on the cases of Li-S and Li-air batteries. On the basis of selected US patents, we use semantic similarity measurement to set up evolutionary patterns which give an overview of the R&D landscape and possible future trends concerning the selected battery technologies. On this basis, implications for R&D managers regarding the distribution of R&D budgets on different technologies in a firm's portfolio can be derived.