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I’m Yamazaki from DENSO. I will explain the details of our growth strategies.
I will walk you through our three pillars in order: Strengthening Product Development, Innovating Manufacturing, and Developing People, Co-Creating with Partners.
First, I would like to talk about product development related to carbon neutrality.
Achieving carbon neutrality requires consideration of different realities across countries and regions, as well as by application. Rather than narrowing down to a single technology, we believe it is important to continue engaging with the diverse needs of all customers and consistently provide optimal options.
DENSO will continue—now and into the future—to support the evolution of a wide range of powertrains through technology, including ICE, HEV, PHEV, BEV, and FCEV.
What enables this is our fundamental technologies, refined over many years, and our ability to integrate them.
DENSO develops a broad range of components in-house, including Motors, Inverters, and Power Supply Systems. By further strengthening the competitiveness of our fundamental technologies, we will refine each component—and by integrating them, we will deliver the optimal integrated systems tailored to needs.
From here, I will introduce specific examples.
First, this is our integrated electric drive system that forms the core of electrification.
In our new Inverter, low-loss drive technologies—including SiC—and double-sided cooling technology reduce losses by approximately 70% and shrink size by around 30%.
This not only extends driving range, but also increases flexibility in vehicle design—enhancing the value of the overall system for customers.
In addition to the Inverter I just explained, we are also developing key components such as Motors and Power Supply Systems.
By further refining the competitiveness of each component, we will contribute to improved electrification performance.
We aim to launch these to the market sequentially from FY2029 onward.
Next, as specific examples, I will introduce our in-house SiC technology and the evolution of Motors.
This is our semiconductor technology that supports electrification. DENSO has developed a proprietary HT-CVD(High Temperature Chemical Vapor Deposition) for SiC semiconductor crystal growth.
Compared with the conventional sublimation method, it increases wafer growth rate by about 15 times, achieving both lower cost and reduced CO₂ emissions at the same time.
We aim to bring this technology to market in FY2028.
In power device development, our proprietary 3D structure suppresses electric-field concentration inside the device and achieves lower loss.
By advancing the technology in-house—from manufacturing through structural design—we will deliver outstanding value in both cost and performance.
Next, I will introduce Motors, another key component for electrification.
By refining both the manufacturing process and the structure, we will achieve performance equivalent to neodymium magnets while being heavy-rare-earth-free and magnet-free.
These technologies will be launched sequentially in FY2030 and FY2031, contributing to the simultaneous improvement of driving performance and environmental performance.
Next, I will introduce our energy management technologies.
To achieve carbon neutrality, it is essential to use the vehicle’s total energy as efficiently as possible, without waste.
Leveraging our thermal technologies, DENSO has refined technologies that balance improved energy efficiency with comfort and convenience.
As a specific example of energy management, this is our next-generation innovative cabin. Through highly efficient glass-heating technology for anti-fogging and direct thermal control technology, we reduce energy consumption related to cabin air-conditioning by about 50%.
We aim to bring this to market in FY2031 as a technology that improves energy efficiency while maintaining comfort.
From here, I will introduce our initiatives in intelligence. As ADAS installation rates have increased, the number of traffic fatalities in Japan has decreased year by year.
On the other hand, accidents still occur due to limitations in vehicle recognition, as well as driver judgment and operation. As a result, we have not yet reached zero casualties.
To realize zero casualties, we need new technologies that go beyond vehicle-only ADAS.
To realize zero traffic fatalities, DENSO is working to improve accident coverage. To do so, we must not only sense the driving environment, but also understand people’s conditions through in-cabin sensing. In addition, we need to evolve toward cooperative driving support that coordinates with other vehicles and infrastructure.
We will introduce a system linking vehicles, humans, and infrastructure by 2030, and then expand its adoption step by step.
This illustrates the evolution of the AD/ADAS systems that DENSO aims to achieve. DENSO will work to provide highly reliable ADAS systems in order to realize both real-world safety and expanded functionality—often a trade-off—in a high-level balance.
DENSO has refined high reliability together with customers across a wide variety of countries and regions.
High reliability—backed by an exceptionally low claim rate—is an essential added value and responsibility that DENSO, supporting safety and peace of mind, must provide. It is also a strength that others cannot replicate.
Leveraging that strength, we will develop a trusted system platform to deliver products safely with mass-production quality.
By combining diverse sensors, automotive-optimized SoCs, and redundant architectures, we will bring to market mechanisms that prevent unintended operations, targeting FY2031, and achieve 80% accident coverage.
Next, I will introduce our SoC development.
In the era of intelligence, competitiveness is determined by automotive-optimized ADAS ECUs and SoCs. As a system Tier 1 supplier, DENSO’s strength is the ability to leverage SoCs and optimize them.
We will achieve both basic functionality using air cooling and low-cost functional expansion through Chiplet technology. For this air-cooled SoC, which reduces power consumption by about 25%, we aim for market ready by FY2031.
We will optimize not only computing performance, but also power efficiency, area efficiency, and reliability, and provide ECUs equipped with the optimal SoC to meet diverse vehicle needs.
DENSO will advance the implementation of AI that leverages tacit knowledge and data cultivated through practice. From here, I will introduce concrete examples from design and development sites as well as factories.
First, in design and development sites, we will add AI-driven speed to the breadth and depth of technologies that are DENSO’s strengths—refined together with customers—to aim for the rapid delivery of high added value.
To achieve this, we will innovate the development process by connecting requirements, design, models, code, and testing, and by using AI to drive automation and optimization across each phase.
Next, I will introduce an example of AI utilization in factories.
As the labor force declines across society and production volumes and product variations fluctuate more due to multi-pathway needs, further productivity improvement is increasingly required. In light of these issues, we will also proactively advance the use of AI in manufacturing.
DENSO’s strengths, cultivated over 75 years on the frontline —master craftsmanship skills, kaizen capability, and in-house robot development technology and operational know-how—are significant assets. We will convert these into high-quality data, model them with AI, and apply automation technologies even to complex processes that previously only people could perform.
At the same time, as the use of Physical AI becomes increasingly important, we will accelerate reskilling of highly skilled equipment maintenance personnel, and build a 7,000-person EinsteIler organization by 2028.
We are advancing proof-of-concept activities in parts, but at the Zenmyo South Plant in Aichi Prefecture, scheduled for completion in 2027, we will conduct verification using an entire new plant.
By practicing quickly in a real shopfloor environment—where people and machines learn together—we will realize manufacturing that continues to learn and evolve.
From here, I will explain the third pillar: Co-creating with Partners. The issues society faces are intertwined and complex—too complex to be fully solved by individual research or technology development alone. By collaborating not only with industry, but also with government and academia, we will continue to provide new value to society. One example is our Dynamic Wireless Power Transfer System.
This system links road infrastructure and vehicles to supply power while driving, enabling optimization of battery size and eliinates range anxiety.
To deliver benefits such as “zero charging time” and “one-tenth the onboard battery,” we are advancing development with the aim of market launch in FY2030.
Through co-creation with diverse partners, we aim to solve social issues through optimal energy management for entire cities.
In the Societal Value Expansion Domains, we will also leverage M&A and accelerate collaboration with partners who can grow together with us. Matsui will explain the details next.
Next, I will explain our initiatives related to people. To realize the technologies and products I have described, strengthening our base of highly specialized talent will become even more important.
Specifically, we will execute the acquisition and development of rare specialists with deep core technologies in priority areas such as materials, semiconductors, and AI, as well as system talent with broad product and element technologies indispensable for developing energy management and thermal management systems—leveraging a wide range of technical domains both vertically and horizontally.
Let me add more on developing system talent. To meet the increasingly diverse needs of customers and society, it is necessary to integrate and optimize the overall mobility system—not only individual products.
The key is “Integrated System Engineers” who combine breadth and depth of technologies across mobility, systems thinking, and the human capability to co-create with customers and within the company.
Integrated System Engineers cannot be developed overnight. We believe they are cultivated through years of working together with diverse customers around the world—learning and being strengthened through that experience.
By focusing on strategic development that leverages diverse practical ‘places’ and DENSO’s mid- to long-term approach to talent development, we will strengthen our development frontline capabilities.
To realize our business strategies, we will visualize the quality and quantity of our 26,000 engineers worldwide—that is, we will visualize each person’s level and field of expertise, as well as the number of people in each area.
Across domains such as fundamental technologies, components, and systems, we will dynamically drive an agile transformation of our talent portfolio—deciding where and how to implement development measures, what levels of talent and how many people to recruit externally, and more.
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