Context:
- This year alone, over 23 million passenger electric vehicles (EVs) will be sold – an increase of 11% from 2025 (2026 BloombergNEF Electric Vehicle Outlook report). Meanwhile, the global number of public charging infrastructure points surpassed 7 million in 2025 (International Energy Agency Global EV Outlook 2026).
- Currently, there are two administrators that manage patent pools for EV charging technologies: Avanci and Via Licensing Alliance. Via’s has been around since 2019 and initiated a strategic partnership with Japanese pool administrator ULDAGE last year to help expand the program in that region (February 18, 2025 ip fray article). Meanwhile, Avanci launched its EV program in 2023, with three initial licensees: Easee, Eaton, and GARO (December 5, 2023 Avanci press release). LG also became a licensee of the pool soon after (November 28, 2024 ip fray article).
- Generally, Nokia is an active licensor within the automotive industry – offering its standard-essential patent (SEP) licenses bilaterally (January 20, 2026 ip fray article) or, with respect to cellular but not Wi-Fi SEPs, through Avanci.
What’s new: Nokia has now joined the Avanci EV Charger program as a licensor, the companies today announced.
Direct impact: With Nokia’s addition, the program now brings together more than 50 licensors and 15 licensees, reflecting growing industry participation as the market for connected EV charging infrastructure continues to expand.
Wider ramifications: Avanci said today that it expects additional companies to join the program as the market continues to evolve. This is significantly positive for the pool administrator, which has seen a general uptick in new licensors and licensees across all its programs recently. This includes its 4G Vehicle and 5G Vehicle programs, which now have 11 Chinese licensees in total (June 7, 2026 ip fray article), including Geely (May 21, 2026 ip fray article). PACCAR also recently took a license (April 22, 2026 ip fray article). And, in March, the company launched its WiFi 6 Vehicle licensing program, with Mercedes-Benz as its first licensee (March 4, 2026 ip fray article), and Sharp joining shortly after as a licensor (April 8, 2026 ip fray article).
In a statement today, Marianne Frydenlund, Vice President, Avanci IoT, said:
“Nokia’s participation demonstrates the continued growth of the Avanci EV Charger program. Each new licensor increases the value of the program for manufacturers, and the growing participation from licensors and licensees demonstrates the momentum we’re seeing behind the program.”
Meanwhile, Nokia’s Head of IoT Licensing Program, Mika Viertiö, said:
“The rapid expansion of connected EV charging infrastructure makes efficient access to cellular technologies increasingly important. By joining the Avanci EV Charger program, we can make Nokia’s innovations more readily available through a streamlined licensing solution that supports both technology companies and manufacturers.”
This news comes after a string of successes for Nokia. In the automotive industry, the company also settled its own cellular SEP dispute with Geely (May 21, 2026 ip fray article), although it is still unknown whether that was through a pool or a bilateral license.