Japanese automakers accelerate new model development; Nissan plans to reduce the number of components by 70%

According to a report by Kyodo News, Japanese automakers are intensifying efforts to shorten vehicle development times in a bid to catch up with competitors who are bringing new models to the global market more quickly and to better respond to changing customer demands. Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and other Japanese car companies typically require about four to five years to develop a new model. As part of reform measures, Nissan aims to significantly reduce development time through its new family-style vehicle development strategy. The company will design a common platform for multiple models of the same size. This new product strategy will cover 80% of the company's global sales and is expected to reduce the number of parts by 70%. Toyota, the world’s largest carmaker by global sales, is also striving to reduce the variety of components based on customer demand, as fewer parts will increase production efficiency and speed up research and development work. Toyota has named this initiative “Area 35,” with the goal of improving factory land use efficiency by 35%. Suzuki plans to halve its current development time to about two years, while Mitsubishi Motors also plans to shorten its development cycle by 20% to three years by around 2030.