CATL tops battery patent ranking with 26,574 patent families vs. 22,597 for LG Energy Solution
The ranking by consultancy PatSnap covers ten years, from October 2016 to September 2026. CATL is ahead of LG by about 4,000 patent families.
Event date: October 6, 2026 · Published: October 12, 2026
The data was published on October 6 by PatSnap, an intellectual property consultancy, based on its own global patent database; Chinese media reported it, and CarNewsChina cites it from them. The count uses "simple patent families", meaning the same invention filed in several countries is counted once. The source does not explain whether this refers to granted patents or to applications.
According to the ranking, CATL has 26,574 simple patent families in batteries and LG Energy Solution 22,597, or 3,977 fewer. Panasonic has 4,994 patents and has dropped out of the top ten. Toyota is the only Japanese company left in it.
What else the ranking shows
CATL has 27,402 battery patents in total, of which 16,722 (61.0%) were filed in the last three years. Traction batteries account for 19,539 patents and solid-state cells for 3,538. According to the source, in both of these categories CATL has more than twice as many as the second Chinese company.
The number of patents does not measure the quality of a technology or a market advantage, and the CarNewsChina report says little about the method. The figures should therefore be read as PatSnap data, not as an independent ranking.
Fact sheet
| Claim | Value | Source | As of |
|---|---|---|---|
| Counting period | October 2016 to September 2026 | PatSnap via CarNewsChina | Oct 11, 2026 |
| CATL, simple patent families (batteries) | 26,574 | PatSnap via CarNewsChina | Oct 11, 2026 |
| LG Energy Solution | 22,597 | PatSnap via CarNewsChina | Oct 11, 2026 |
| CATL, patents from the last 3 years | 16,722 of 27,402 (61.0%) | PatSnap via CarNewsChina | Oct 11, 2026 |
| CATL, solid-state cells | 3,538 | PatSnap via CarNewsChina | Oct 11, 2026 |
Sources
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