Within the Green Deal’s ‘Accelerating the shift to sustainable and smart mobility’, vehicles with alternative propulsion systems will play a significant role, as the transport sector is responsible for one-fifth of the European Union’s CO2 emissions. Therefore, more and more governments are supporting the purchase and production of electric vehicles, as it can be one of the main tools for locally reducing fossil fuel consumption as well as reducing CO2 emissions. The analysis highlights that the three most important vehicle-producing countries (based on 2019 OICA data) from the European Union are Germany, France, and Spain. The development trajectory of these countries in the field of electromobility is presented using descriptive statistics. Sustainable development goals can be achieved by creating an innovative environment and overcoming barriers to innovation, which can be indicated, for example, by the number of patents in a given country. Therefore, a long-term time series based on patents related to electric vehicles will be explored using the database of the European Patent Office. The study describes the vehicle manufacturers with the most patents, and the main patent areas in the three countries analysed
