Phiaro: breathing new life into automotive design

“For future projects, it is very important to find smaller companies with new and interesting technologies.”

Teruhiko Iwasaki, President, Phiaro Corporation

With the emergence of the CASE era of mobility, the marriage of advanced computer technology with automotive technology has truly commenced. One company leading the charge in this CASE era when it comes to the research, design and development of concept cars is Phiaro Corporation, a creative engineering firm aiming to support the advancement of the automotive industry as a “Mobility Development Platformer”.

“We apply our innovation to the automotive industry in the same way as Amazon and Google have done as IT development platformers,” says president Teruhiko Iwasaki. “We can provide any core development product. We aim to provide users with better experiences and a greater variety of choices. As we now understand, it is not enough to just have a basic functional car, a car needs to provide a new one and only experience. Many car manufacturers are aiming to go that way. Their aim is to produce and introduce a much wider range of different applications and experiences.”

With over 80 years of history, Phiaro’s business covers a wide net and its activities are broken into two departments: R&D and engineering, with the latter focusing on providing services that are normally too difficult for its clients to operate in-house.

“This is one of Phiaro’s strong points, and in fact, we can provide anything the client needs for development,” adds Mr. Iwasaki. “Over the past ten years, Phiaro has put a particular focus on this area, and we have found that not only has our business in this area increased, but we have been quite profitable in this area with the CASE era rapidly approaching. For the past 20 years, we have considered how Phiaro can evolve to reach our current position.”

Today the Japanese firm is leveraging the power of VR in order to give clients the chance to test its technology through an immersive experience. “To illustrate the next step for the styling of cars, we combine this visualization with driving simulators in order to create an immersive experience that is the first of its kind. This is a new approach to the industry that aims to better introduce the services that we provide to customers,” the president explains.

Moving forward, Phiaro hopes to expand its global operations (it already has its subsidiary Phiaro USA), while also finding capable partners and people worldwide who share its vision for the future of mobility. “I would like to make investments in talented and skilled human resources all over the world,” says Mr. Iwasaki. “For future projects, it is very important to find smaller companies with new and interesting technologies.”