The solid-state battery story in the US press is QuantumScape’s share price and CATL’s announcements. The patent data tells a different story. Toyota holds 200 of the 1,148 US solid-state battery grants issued since 2020 — 14x QuantumScape, eight times the US pure-plays combined. A slow-walking incumbent is still an incumbent.
Two patent clusters that barely knew about each other in 2000 — footwear and consumer electronics — have closed 16% of their distance by 2025. Nike has been patenting sensor-embedded sneakers at the rate of a mid-sized electronics company. Apple has three of its own.