Japan's automakers seek to catch up with China

Tokyo [Japan], October 26: Japanese automakers are stepping up efforts to shorten their vehicle development times as they seek to catch up with Chinese rivals that offer new models to global markets more quickly, to better respond to changing customer demand.
Toyota Motor Corp, Honda Motor Co, Nissan Motor Co and other Japanese carmakers typically spend around four to five years developing a new model, more than twice as long as the less than two years taken by Chinese companies.
As part of its reform measures, Nissan aims to slash development times under its new family-based vehicle development strategy. The carmaker will design a common platform for multiple models of the same size.
The carmaker, for example, plans to shorten the lead time for developing a new sport-utility vehicle model to three years and one month for launch in North America in 2028.
It will then use the same platform as that of the new SUV for its derivative models, enabling it to reduce development time by up to 40 percent to two and a half years.
Source: Qatar Tribune