Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, has been surprising us for quite some time now, he sure is a gutsy man but this particular move that he has made was pretty unexpected by his standards too. Tesla Motors has decided to give access, yeah open access, to all the patents that it owns to other companies in order to speed up the electric cars’ development. According to Musk, somewhere near several hundred patents will be shared and the company won’t be suing other companies for using these patents.
Elon Musk further stated; ‘If we clear a path to the creation of compelling electric vehicles, but then lay intellectual property landmines behind us to inhibit others, we are acting in a manner contrary to that goal.’ As of now, electric cars don’t really stand out much when it comes to US auto sales with drivers concerned mostly about its range. Not to mention that the stable gasoline prices have had their impact on the sales as well.
Currently Tesla manufactures one vehicle by the name of Model S Sedan while two other models are being developed – Model X crossover will be out next year. Most of the company’s patents will expire by 2026 and Elon Musk states that this is a ‘modest’ help by Tesla motors to other companies that are manufacturing electric cars. The Model S can manage 265 miles on a single charge and costs about $70,000.
A professor from the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Engineering, Prashand Kumta, tells that Tesla’s battery is not unique but how they package the technology and design the car is what could prove useful to other companies. The patents will also allow other companies to learn about how Tesla manages the Supercharger technology, which allows it to replenish half the battery in about 20 minutes.
Elon Musk, in this regard, stated; ‘I think Superchargers could be a great area for collaboration and creating a common industry platform.’ According to him, Tesla and BMW have discussed a partnership pertaining to Superchargers as well.
Aaron Levie, CEO of Box Inc from Silicon Valley said; ‘By opening its patents, Tesla rightly realizes it’s better to be the best product in a large industry than the only product in a niche one.’ We agree with Aaron that this was a smart move on Tesla Motors end, what needs to be seen however, is how other companies react to this act.
