Analysis of electric vehicle technology development based on patent big data: a topic analysis of structured topic model (STM)

This research uses 61,780 patents related to electric vehicles in the global patent database to analyze the full text of electric vehicle patents in two major technology areas (1. transport, 2. electrical machinery, apparatus, energy) and other technology areas using the STM model for thematic analysis, and combines them with patent values. We look for the thematic bias of high-value patents in each technology area, so as to determine the most valuable development direction in the field of electric vehicles. In our analysis, we found that innovations in core technologies bring the most value, including energy conversion efficiency and battery module technology performance, while sustainability is another focus of core technologies and the green effect is gaining importance. This study compares the full-text themes of all technology patents since the concept of electric vehicles was first created, and considers the weighting of words of different core degrees to provide a baseline for subsequent research.