Professor Kato of the University of Tsukuba's Automotive Technology Center and students from his laboratory have clarified the fuel efficiency benefits of one-pedal driving, which is used in electric vehicles.Utsunomiya Campus

Akira Kato, a Professor at the Teikyo University Automotive Technology Center, and three students from his laboratory, aimed to extend the driving distance per charge of high-voltage batteries, one of the challenges facing electric vehicles (BEVs). They drove around Utsunomiya and conducted a quantitative analysis of the impact of one-pedal driving (a function that allows acceleration, deceleration, and stopping using only the accelerator pedal) on electricity consumption on real roads.
The analysis results confirmed that one-pedal driving can improve electricity consumption by up to approximately 15% when driving in urban areas, and clarified that this is due to an increase in the amount of power used by regenerative braking due to an increase in the frequency of vehicle deceleration. This research was carried out with the cooperation of Toshihiro Koyanagi, Teaching Associate at the Automotive Technology Center, and Masakage Surenai, a technical staff member at the same center.
The results of this research were published in the December issue of the Journal of Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan (VOL. 79), published on Monday, December 1, 2025, in the "Special Feature: Latest Technologies Promoting the Spread of xEVs" section.

Our university's Automotive Technology Center supports the research activities of its faculty members with its advanced facilities and high technical capabilities, covering a wide range of technical issues related to not only conventional automotive technology but also environmental technologies that will achieve carbon neutrality, as well as future societal needs for automobiles such as CASE and MaaS. Please keep an eye on the results of our research in the future.

• * The Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan, a public interest incorporated association, is one of the engineering societies in Japan with the largest number of members (45,487 individual members as of December 2025).

For more information about Professor Akira Kato, please click here.
For more information about Akira Kato's Laboratory, click here.
For more information about the Automotive Technology Center, click here.

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