The NOCO Company's grant US11600996B2, "Electric vehicle (EV) fast recharge station and system" (issued March 7, 2023), echoes the battery-buffered-station idea LG Chem pursued in 2020 — and the CPC confirms the buffer. H02J 7/0018 (charge-control circuitry) and B60L 50/40 (propulsion from external storage) sit alongside H01M 10/052 (lithium cells) and H01M 2220/20 (battery-application marker), which together describe a station that stores energy and delivers it fast to a vehicle.
The novelty, then, is the integrated recharge-station-and-system architecture with onboard storage. The strategic logic mirrors the broader infrastructure thesis: buffering energy in a station battery lets the station deliver high power without demanding it instantaneously from the grid. A claim that recites the storage-and-delivery system is claiming the infrastructure architecture, which for a battery-and-charger company like NOCO is the right corner to hold.
On scope, this is a granted B2, so the scope has cleared examination. The independent claim establishes the buffered fast-recharge station; the dependents that specify the storage configuration and the charge-control behavior are the moat. The presence of explicit lithium-cell classes suggests the claim ties the station to a particular storage chemistry and management approach, which narrows and strengthens it relative to a generic charging claim.
Dated March 2023, the grant lands as grid-constrained fast charging was a recognized bottleneck and buffered stations were gaining traction as the workaround. The teardown verdict: an examined infrastructure-storage grant whose protection lives in the storage-and-control dependents. Read those — and note that the battery-in-the-station architecture, first prominent in 2020 filings, had by 2023 matured into issued, defensible IP held by multiple players.