Indian auto giant Mahindra & Mahindra Limited (BOM:500520) (NSE:M&M) will review the technology patents that American car maker Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) has made free for applicability to its products.
Global auto giants Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. (ADR) (OTCMKTS:NSANY) (TYO:7201) and Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (ETR:BMW) (FRA:BMW) are also reportedly interested in working along with Tesla in the development of electric vehicles.
Patents are barriers to progress
As reported earlier, Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk made waves when he opened the company’s patents to other firms to use ‘in good faith’, saying that he was acting in the spirit of the open source community.
It takes more than patents to build a car, and apparently Tesla’s CEO is perfectly happy to compete on quality. He indicated that he has a changing view of patents, seeing them as barriers to progress, and that the spread of electric cars is important for the planet.
Mahindra’s electric cars
Indian auto giant Mahindra Group’s Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicles has been working on various electric vehicles (EV), including its upcoming sports car ‘Halo.’ Pointing out Mahindra’s interest in the Tesla patents, Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicles’ CEO Chetan Mani said: “We will review them (patents), and it’s too early to comment on the direct benefit to us.”
He complemented Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA)’s patent free initiative as a “great idea to share patents and technology” and said: “As a philosophy, I do believe it’s going to make people rethink on IP and technology sharing.”
Despite relatively small size of the electric car segment, Mahindra Reva has been working to ramp up its line of electric vehicles. The company maintains that it’s too early to say how Tesla’s technology could be beneficial to it.
Currently, Samsung has limited its presence in the electric car sector to its battery-making affiliate Samsung SDI. Samsung SDI Co Ltd has supply deals with BMW, Chrysler and Mahindra and Mahindra for rechargeable batteries.
Although Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) tasted success in the U.S., electric cars have failed to attain real global traction to date.
