Japanese carmakers cut development time to catch up with China

Tokyo (ANTARA) — Japanese carmakers are stepping up efforts to shorten product development times as they seek to catch up with Chinese competitors, which are bringing new models to global markets more quickly in response to changing consumer demand.

According to Kyodo, Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co., Nissan Motor Co. and other Japanese manufacturers typically take around four to five years to develop a new car model. That is more than twice the time required by Chinese automakers, which take about two years.

As part of its reform efforts, Nissan is seeking to shorten development of its production vehicles through a new family-based strategy. The carmaker will design shared platforms for several models of a similar size.

For example, Nissan plans to cut development of a new passenger sport utility vehicle (SUV) to three years and one month, ahead of its launch in North America in 2028. It will then use a similar platform for derivative models, potentially reducing development time by up to 40 per cent, to 2.5 years.

The new product strategy will cover 80 per cent of the company’s global sales and is expected to reduce the number of parts types by up to 70 per cent.

“This is a reform to become a company that responds to change and can deliver high-quality cars on time,” said Hidemi Sasaki, deputy general manager of Nissan’s Product Planning Division.

Honda, meanwhile, which is seeking to recover after recording a sharp net loss in the last financial year, has introduced its “Triple Half” approach. The business transformation strategy aims to halve development costs, development time and workload by making full use of artificial intelligence and digital technology.

The new initiatives will begin with models whose development is due to start in 2028.

Toyota, the world’s largest carmaker by volume, is also seeking to reduce the variety of parts in line with customer needs. It says using fewer parts will boost productivity and speed up development work.

Under its strategy, called “Area 35”, Toyota aims to increase factory floor-space utilisation by 35 per cent.

Suzuki Motor Corp. plans to cut vehicle development time to about two years, while Mitsubishi Motors Corp. is also targeting a 20 per cent reduction, bringing the period to three years by around 2030.