Valeo Once Again Ranked as World's Leading French Patent Applicant
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.
Key Areas of Innovation
- Electrification technologies: inverters, DCDC converters, 48V and high-voltage on-board chargers, transmission systems for electric vehicles, battery cooling, and interior heating systems dedicated to electric vehicles.
- Driving assistance technologies: driver alertness detection systems and optimized head-up display systems.
- Lighting technologies: projection of information on the ground and full front-end integration solutions.
- Interior experience technologies: 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.
*in 2020
