Valeo is world’s leading French patent applicant once again

Valeo has been ranked the world’s leading French patent applicant, with 1,777 patents issued in one year, including 46% in France. This is as per the rankings published by the France's intellectual property institute (INPI), which lists the first applications granted by the world's main patent offices.

Valeo has also come third in the 2021 ranking of patent applicants in France, with a total of 721 patents. Its innovations are now protected by a portfolio of almost 35,000 patents worldwide.

Christophe Périllat, Valeo’s Chief Executive Officer, commented: “This ranking demonstrates Valeo’s consistent efforts to innovate, particularly in four key areas in the transformation of mobility: electrification, driving assistance systems, lighting and reinventing the interior experience. Every day, our teams find new solutions for cleaner, safer and smarter mobility. Making cutting-edge technology widely accessible is in our DNA.“

Of these 1,777 patents, 46% were filed in France, 25% in Germany, 6% in Europe (excluding France and Germany), 5% in China and 18% in the rest of the world.

Patents filed by Valeo in 2021 mainly concerned:

- Electrification technologies, such as inverters (the ‘brains’ of electrical systems), DCDC converters and 48V and high-voltage on-board chargers, transmission systems for electric vehicles, battery cooling or interior heating systems dedicated to electric vehicles, optimizing their autonomy, and lastly, electrification solutions for small-scale mobility, such as electrically-assisted bicycles;

- Driving assistance technologies, such as driver alertness detection systems and optimised head-up display systems;

- Lighting technologies, in particular projection of information on the ground and full front-end integration solutions;

- Technologies for reinventing the interior experience, including technologies for integrating radiant panel heating, solutions for improving interior air quality and intelligent function activation systems.

In April, Valeo was also ranked France’s third biggest patent applicant with the European Patent Office (EPO) for 2021, with 500 patents (41st worldwide). In 2021, Valeo’s Research and Development expenditure amounted to 1.7 billion euros, or 12% of the Group’s original equipment sales. Valeo has 64 R&D centers worldwide and almost 20,000 R&D engineers among its more than 103,000 employees.

92% of the Group’s original equipment sales are generated by technologies that reduce CO2 emissions and increase road safety and 45% of the orders received last year by the Group, including Valeo Siemens eAutomotive, were for technologies that did not exist three years ago.

Valeo is the world leader in vehicle electrification and ADAS. One in three new vehicles worldwide are equipped with Valeo technologies that reduce CO2 emissions and one in three new vehicles are equipped with one of its ADAS technologies.

Other system applications include driver identification and select certains functions in the drive interface using the eyes. These features contribute to increased safety and more intuitive use of the new generation of driver assistance functions.