Electric vehicle technology in China: An exploratory patent analysis

•The development of China's EV technology and its competitiveness is analysed.•The main stages of the development of China's EV policies is summarized.•China reveals outstanding performance in EV technology in its domestic market.•A relatively weak international competitiveness is found for China's EV technology.•The main factors explaining the different performances are proposed and discussed.

Currently, the electric vehicle (EV) technology is of great interest in China and around the world. This paper first conducts a comprehensive review of China's EV policies and the development of China's EV technology, and then analyzes the domestic performances of China's EV technology and its international competitiveness by adopting the recently developed concept of transnational patents. The results show an outstanding performance for China's EV technology in the domestic market, but a relatively poor performance in the international markets. Finally, several main factors causing the inconsistent performance of China's EV technology are proposed and discussed.