Fujitsu and JA Mitsui Leasing Turn Real Fleet Data Into an EV Adoption Plan

Replacing company cars with electric vehicles is not a one-question decision. A fleet manager has to know which vehicles can be replaced, how many should be changed first, whether the available EV models can cover real daily routes, how many chargers are needed, when vehicles will return to base, and whether total cost of ownership—vehicles, energy, maintenance and charging infrastructure combined—actually improves.

On September 18, JA Mitsui Leasing, JA Mitsui Leasing Auto, Fujitsu and Smartvalue announced that they had developed a service intended to bring those decisions into one data-driven model. The JA Mitsui Leasing Group is launching it as the EV Simulation Service. Smartvalue supplies real-world fleet data through its CiEMS Plus telematics platform, while Fujitsu uses its Social Digital Twin technology to simulate vehicle choice, fleet size, charging infrastructure and operating methods. The service also compares CO2 emissions and total cost of ownership across multiple scenarios.^[1]

The question is not simply “How many EVs should we buy?”

The service is designed to answer a more difficult question: how should a company redesign fleet operations around electrification? According to the companies, it analyzes real driving data and business usage patterns, then automatically tests combinations of vehicle models, deployment numbers, charger capacity and charging methods. It presents the resulting economics and operating feasibility together with projected CO2 and TCO effects.^[1]

Average mileage alone is rarely enough. Two vehicles may each travel 60 kilometers a day but have completely different charging requirements. One may leave in the morning and return only at night. Another may make short trips and return to the same depot several times. A fleet that returns at roughly the same hour may create a large charging peak even when every individual vehicle has ample range.

Telematics replaces assumptions with actual operating data

Smartvalue describes CiEMS as a corporate telematics platform that collects vehicle operating information through onboard devices and turns it into data that managers can use. Its functions include driving-history records, driver-behavior analysis and vehicle utilization analysis. Smartvalue specifically promotes utilization data as a way to identify surplus vehicles and reconsider fleet size.^[3]

In the new service, that operational record becomes the starting point for forecasting. Instead of asking whether a hypothetical EV with a stated range should be sufficient, the system can examine when a vehicle actually moves, how far it travels, when it returns and how those patterns interact with charging.

Fujitsu and its partners say conventional EV planning often depends on desk-based assumptions. Their stated goal is to reduce the risk of buying too many or too few vehicles, installing inadequate charging infrastructure, or discovering after deployment that the planned operating pattern does not work.^[1]

What Fujitsu means by a Social Digital Twin

A conventional digital twin reproduces a physical asset or system in a digital environment so that its condition or behavior can be analyzed. Fujitsu's Social Digital Twin expands the concept toward human activity and social systems. The company describes it as a technology group that uses real-world data, AI and insights from behavioral science and economics to reproduce activities digitally and evaluate possible effects before measures are implemented.^[1][4]

For fleet electrification, the value is not in making a perfect virtual copy of one vehicle. It is in representing a system: routes, return times, charger availability, vehicle characteristics and operating rules. That allows a company to test whether a proposed fleet can still perform the work required of it.

The project began with JA fleet trials in 2024

The commercial service has a clear history. JA Mitsui Leasing and Fujitsu began a joint trial on October 15, 2024 using vehicles operated by agricultural cooperatives in the JA network. The companies collected location and driving-history data from gasoline vehicles and used it to simulate EV charging timing and future operating patterns.^[2]

The 2024 trial explicitly compared vehicle leasing costs, fuel and electricity costs, CO2 emissions, vehicle numbers and charging infrastructure. It distinguished between base charging—charging at places where an EV remains for long periods, such as a company parking lot—and en-route charging used when additional energy is needed during a journey.^[2]

That transition matters. In 2024, the project was presented as a verification effort involving Fujitsu's EV-Shift offering and Social Digital Twin. By 2026, it has moved toward an operational service sold through the JA Mitsui Leasing Group, linking analysis with vehicle procurement, finance and post-deployment support.^[1][2]

Total cost of ownership is where fleet economics become complicated

An EV can have a higher acquisition cost while offering lower energy or maintenance expense. But the answer changes by fleet. TCO may include lease or purchase cost, electricity or fuel, maintenance, taxes, insurance, charging equipment, electrical upgrades and the economic value of vehicle availability.

High-mileage vehicles may gain more from lower energy cost per kilometer, while lightly used vehicles may never recover a higher acquisition cost. A fleet dependent on public rapid charging may face different economics from one that can charge overnight at a depot. Charging power, time of use and the need to upgrade a site's electrical capacity can materially change the result.

That is why the useful output is not “EV is cheaper” or “gasoline is cheaper.” It is a ranking of where electrification works first, what supporting infrastructure is actually required and where conventional or other electrified vehicles may remain operationally preferable.

Japan's charging policy provides the national backdrop

Japan has set a goal of having electrified vehicles account for 100% of new passenger-car sales by 2035. Importantly, the government's definition of “electrified vehicles” includes battery EVs, plug-in hybrids, hybrids and fuel-cell vehicles. The target should therefore not be read as a requirement that every new passenger vehicle be a pure battery EV by 2035.^[5][7]

Charging policy has also been strengthened. METI's 2023 infrastructure guidelines raised the national target to 300,000 charging ports by 2030, including 30,000 public rapid-charging ports, while also calling for higher charging power and greater convenience.^[5][6]

Yet public charging is only part of the fleet problem. Corporate vehicles often return to the same depots, so base charging can be more important than the number of highway chargers. The 2024 JA trial explicitly treated base charging and en-route charging as separate operating variables.^[2]

Commercial electrification sits where climate policy meets operations

Japan's Ministry of the Environment supports electrification of commercial vehicles including trucks, taxis and buses, citing transport's large share of national CO2 emissions and the need to accelerate adoption of BEVs, PHEVs and fuel-cell vehicles together with charging equipment.^[8]

But national targets do not determine whether a particular vehicle at a particular company should be replaced. A rural sales vehicle, an agricultural-service van, a maintenance truck and an urban pool car may have entirely different requirements for distance, payload, terrain, seasonal use and emergency response.

Corporate electrification is therefore different from simply convincing more consumers to buy EVs. A company vehicle is part of a production system. If it cannot perform its assigned work, the environmental benefit is irrelevant to the operator.

Four companies connect data, simulation and asset management

The structure also illustrates how vehicle leasing is changing. A leasing company no longer has to stop at financing an asset. If it can combine fleet data with simulation, it can advise on how many assets a customer actually needs and how they should be operated.

What the announcement does not yet tell us

The public materials reviewed by Japan.co.jp do not disclose service pricing, the standard analysis period, a minimum fleet size, supported EV brands, detailed treatment of electricity demand charges or site electrical upgrades, or measured results from named commercial customers. Those details may be determined case by case, but they are not in the published release.

Likewise, projected CO2 reductions depend on assumptions such as the electricity emissions factor, vehicle efficiency and real operating patterns. A simulation result should therefore be understood as scenario analysis, not as a guaranteed environmental or financial return.

Fleet electrification is moving from vehicle purchasing to operating-system design

Japan's EV debate has often revolved around three visible questions: vehicle price, driving range and charger availability. The new service points toward a more mature phase in which those variables are treated together and anchored in a company's own operating data.

If a simulation can show that seven of 20 vehicles are strong early candidates for EV replacement, that six chargers are sufficient rather than 10, and that two long-distance vehicles should remain on a different powertrain for now, electrification becomes less like a blanket environmental pledge and more like disciplined capital allocation.

For companies, the important measure is not how many EVs are purchased. It is whether the required work still gets done, whether unnecessary infrastructure is avoided, and whether energy cost and emissions actually fall. The EV Simulation Service is an attempt to answer those questions before the vehicles and chargers are bought.