Having invested heavily ($500 million) in the Michigan based e-mobility startup, Rivian, and announcing a partnership with Volkswagen to investigate possible collaboration in developing electric vehicles (EVs), Ford is shaping up to be a formidable player in the already fast-growing EV market. It was also reported recently that Lincoln, which is Ford’s luxury car brand, is already developing a new fully electric vehicle in partnership with Rivian set to be released some time in 2022. Ford is sending clear signals to the market that they are ready to tackle the changes that are coming to the automotive industry in the form of digitalization. With the increased adoption of digital technologies by the auto industry set to change the way we drive, Ford is rapidly innovating to come up with safer, cleaner and cheaper modes of transport.

In November 2019, EconSight - a Swiss based consulting and research company, conducted a study of the Top 100 Digital Innovators. This ranking was created using LexisNexis PatentSight to analyze patents owned by global companies that are leaders in innovation in the digital space. This study revealed that Ford’s consistent efforts in innovation have resulted in their ranking being improved five spots, within a year. They lead the rank hierarchy in autonomous driving, closely followed by the VW group, Toyota Motor and Bosch.

Following the lead of this study, in order to understand more about technology adoption in the automotive industry, we conducted further analyses - comparing Ford’s portfolio to that of Volkswagen, Alphabet and Apple, who are also active in the automotive space. To maintain consistency, the analysis was limited to patents owned by these companies that relate to a combination of classic and digitalization technologies to be used in automobiles.

“Our competitors no longer just make cars. Companies like Google, Apple and even Facebook are what I think about at night.”

―Akio Toyoda

While the Automotive industry is no stranger to partnerships between rivals, a recent tide of partnerships to develop Autonomous driving has been raising interest and a lot of questions regarding the fruitfulness of such "tie-ups". Major players like Daimler and BMW, VW and Ford, Renault and Fiat have already formed or are in the process of forming strategic partnerships to develop technologies in the field of “Autonomous Driving”. All these proposed ventures will shape the face of mobility in the future. It is therefore important for the parties in it to ensure that they are forming the right alliances. But how to go about finding out the secret strength that a prospective partner possesses? We believe and can demonstrate that patent analysis, using our award winning software and scientifically validated metrics, is an excellent method to scout for and investigate proposed strategic partnerships.