Due to increasing concerns on climate change, air pollution, and associated public health, China's new energy-vehicle (NEV) industry has received great support and experienced rapid development. Many patents have been approved and applied in this field to support its rapid development. However, few studies investigated the evolution of these patents. Under such a background, we measure China's NEV-related patents by using a social network analysis approach. The top 38 organizations with the most NEV-related patents were chosen as the study targets. Patent numbers, technological innovation and development, and the geographical distribution of patents were examined. The cooperation network of NEV-related patents was also investigated, including its features and performance during different stages of the NEV growth. The results show that China's NEV-patents cooperation network has evolved smoothly with a growing network density, stable structure, and more cohesive subgroups. Policy recommendations were raised by considering the Chinese realities, such as the encouragement of cooperation, the creation of NEV-related patents pools, and the roles of various stakeholders. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.