R&D and Social Implementation Plan Formulated for Automobile-related Projects

1. Background and purpose

Toward the goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, METI has established a Green Innovation Fund at a level of 2 trillion yen under the FY2020 Tertiary Supplementary Budget and decided to assign the project’s operation to the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO). Based on specific goals shared by the public and private sectors, the government will provide continuous support over the next ten years to companies and other organizations that are committed to taking on challenges toward achieving these ambitious goals as issues that are critical to their businesses. The support will assist efforts ranging from research and development (R&D) through demonstrations to social implementation of the outcomes.
In order to ensure proper and efficient execution of the fund, the Green Innovation Project Committee under the Industrial Structure Council finalized the Fund Allocation Policy for Each Field. Based on this policy, field-specific working groups established under the Committee deliberate on issues such as the priority and appropriateness of the amount to be implemented by the fund for each project. Then, the divisions and offices in charge of the project at the responsible ministries and agencies formulate the content of each project as an "R&D and Social Implementation Plan," and open calls for applicants.
Today, METI formulated an R&D and Social Implementation Plan for automobile-related projects based on discussions by the Working Group on the Field of Industry Structure Transformation.

2. Main content of the R&D and Social Implementation Plan for automobile-related projects

(1) "Development of In-Vehicle Computing and Simulation Technologies for Improving Energy Efficiency of Electrified Vehicles and Other Vehicles" Project

• This project will conduct R&D on improving energy efficiency of multiple types of advanced in-vehicle computing (autonomous driving software and sensor systems) required for autonomous driving from the viewpoint of ensuring the driving performance of electrified vehicles.
• At the same time, in order to speed up the social implementation of electrified vehicles and other vehicles and to strengthen the competitiveness of the entire automobile supply chain, the project will develop a standard simulation model for electrified vehicles that is compatible with autonomous driving.

(2) "Smart Mobility Society Construction" Project

• This project will develop and verify a simulation system for operational management aimed at minimizing energy costs and CO₂ emissions and maximizing transportation efficiency in different cases classified by power source (e.g. EV and FCV) and business type (e.g. buses, taxis, and trucks).
• In addition, it will collect a variety of data from companies in different business sectors and use data on weather and other factors to develop and verify an optimization simulation system to be used across society. It will also aim to optimize the layout of charging and filling infrastructure and reduce the load on energy systems.

3. Future schedule

Today, NEDO has started the call for applicants for automobile-related projects. For more information, please see METI's press release "Call for Applicants Starts for Automobile-Related Projects."

Related materials

• R&D and Social Implementation Plan for the "Development of In-Vehicle Computing and Simulation Technologies for Improving Energy Efficiency of Electrified Vehicles and Other Vehicles" Projects (Outline)(PDF:298KB)
• R&D and Social Implementation Plan for the "Smart Mobility Society Construction" Projects (Outline)(PDF:53KB)

Related links

• Results of the Call for Public Comments on the R&D and Social Implementation Plan (Draft) for the Green Innovation Fund's "Development of In-Vehicle Computing and Simulation Technologies for Improving Energy Efficiency of Electrified Vehicles and Other Vehicles" Projects Announced (in Japanese)
• Results of the Call for Public Comments on the R&D and Social Implementation Plan (Draft) for the Green Innovation Fund's "Smart Mobility Society Construction" Projects (in Japanese)

Division in Charge

• About the fund in general

  Carbon Neutrality Project Promotion Office, Environmental Policy Division, Industrial Science and Technology Policy and Environment Bureau

• About the details of the project

  ITS and Autonomous Driving Promotion Office, Automobile Division, Manufacturing Industries Bureau