Swedish Electromobility Centre caught Yuki Kobayashi’s attention when he was looking for research information within electromobility. When a PhD student position opened at Chalmers he decided to apply.
“I’m really into electromobility and I understood that if I wanted to expand my knowledge in this area, SEC was a good place to be at. Besides, the PhD community looked really fun.”
Yuki grew up in Kyoto and Osaka in Japan where he received a B.A. and M.S. degrees in urban management engineering from Kyoto University. He worked as a researcher at Nissan in Yokohama between 2018 and 2023. He was not unfamiliar with Sweden since he had done a research exchange year at KTH in Stockholm in 2016.
“I like Sweden, it’s a comfortable country and I enjoy the worker-friendly working conditions here. The biggest difference is that in Japan you can find anything anywhere conveniently, but in Sweden, the cities are more relaxing instead. Yes, I enjoy the different culture.”
Yuki’s research is about understanding charging and driving patterns in a Vehicle to Grid perspective. Analyzing data from EV owners will help understand opportunities and challenges within EV charging and what impacts it has on the electricity grid.
“I have a positive prospect for electromobility in the world. Especially electric cars for private use and car sharing. Sweden has come further in this remark compared to Japan. The Japanese car market is a bit different from Sweden. Highly efficient plugless hybrid electric vehicles are dominant, and you can see many cubic cars for four passengers called kei,” says Yuki.