Education

Title: Characteristics and Development Challenges of Battery EV

Date: Wednesday, 8 October 2025 16:45 - 17:45

Place: IMI Auditorium(W1-D-413) and Live streaming with Zoom

Speaker: Tomoo Kakegawa (Toyota Motor Corporation)

Attendance: 40(Students: 14; Staff: 17;Others:9)

On October 8, 2025, a lecture titled “Characteristics and Development Challenges of Battery EV” was delivered by Tomohisa Kakegawa and Masami Ikura of Toyota Motor Corporation.
The speakers introduced the fundamental knowledge of “EV” currently being developed at the company, the differences in development and control compared to gasoline vehicles that include engines, differences in entry barriers arising from software becoming the decisive factor in development, and global trends in EV development. They emphasized that the key to product competitiveness lies in software, and that crucial decisions are made at the very first “planning” stage of development—particularly the importance of characteristic values expressible by mathematical formulas, such as aerodynamic drag.
Regarding software development for EV, they stressed that in order to improve development capabilities—especially speed—and achieve more efficient control, it is necessary to build an architecture controlled by multiple DCs (domain controllers), which differs from conventional approaches. In addition, the “mindset” behind software and hardware development must be redefined.
In the latter half of the lecture, the speakers presented three challenges the company faces in EV development:

Power Management:
EVs depend on batteries and are therefore highly sensitive to power consumption. Moreover, the operating environment and the user’s driving behavior introduce numerous fluctuating factors. Efficient control that accounts for all these elements is required.

Failure Prediction:
To produce and sell high-quality products, it is necessary to provide “explainable” assurance that quality is maintained. As sensor and communication data continue to increase, detecting abnormalities before failures occur is essential for ensuring quality. For example, by continuously analyzing CAN (Controller Area Network) data obtained from vehicles in operation, “invisible warning signs” can be extracted, enabling corrective action before major issues arise. Mathematical approaches are expected to make significant contributions in this area.

Software Quality Assurance:
With functions such as autonomous driving requiring extensive interoperation, the volume of software code and requirement specifications becomes enormous. Consequently, verification costs to ensure overall quality also grow substantially. New techniques—such as automotive model verification and simulation—are needed, and expectations for mathematical approaches are increasing.

In conclusion, the speakers reiterated that leveraging both fundamental mathematical knowledge and mathematical technologies as well as advanced software engineering can enhance the value and development speed of EV, thereby strengthening the competitiveness of Japan’s automotive industry.
After the lecture, faculty members and research associates of IMI, along with students from the Department of Mathematics and the Graduate School of Mathematical Sciences, engaged in a lively question-and-answer session and discussion with Mr. Kakegawa and Mr. Ikura. Topics included comparisons between the structure and manufacturing of engine vehicles and EVs, design philosophies, and differences in software scale and associated challenges in EV. The colloquium concluded on a highly successful note.