General Motors (GM) took the race for green vehicle technology to a whole new level in 2010 by filing and receiving 135 clean energy patents — more than any other automaker. According to the Clean Energy Patent Growth Index, GM was ahead of the rest of the pack, accounting for a whopping 14% of all clean energy patents filed last year. Their patent winnings ran the gamut from electric vehicles to solar, wind and geothermal energy.
GM has been running full sprint into the clean energy world and picking up accolades along the way. The Chevy Volt was awarded the North American Car of the Year — among other honors — and sold so many units that they’re planning to double production next year. With their success it would seem only fitting that they’d want to push forward with new technology in their newly expanded clean energy research facilities — like their battery research lab, which doubled in size last year.
In total, GM’s 135 clean-energy patents were just a fraction of the 940 patents filed by the company last year — a number which puts them in the top 25 of all US companies. They are the proud new owners of technology like a heating system that warms an electric vehicle battery before it starts to extend driving range, a hybrid cruise control system that generates power while stabilized, and a new system that dynamically measures the amount of charge left in a lithium ion battery in real time.
Via Autoblog Green
