Four to five years vs under two: Nissan, Honda, Toyota hit fast-forward button as Japan chases China

TOKYO, Oct 25 — 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 and to better respond to changing customer demand, Kyodo News reported.

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 per cent to two and a half years.

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

“This is a reform to become a company that responds to changes and delivers good cars in a timely manner,” Hidemi Sasaki, deputy general manager of Nissan’s product planning division, said.

Honda, seeking a V-shaped recovery from its first net loss in the last fiscal year, has introduced the “Triple Half” approach designed to halve development costs, time frames and workloads from 2025 levels, making full use of artificial intelligence and other digital technologies.

The new initiatives will begin with new models whose development the company will start in 2028.

Toyota, the world’s largest automaker by volume, is also working to reduce types of parts, depending on customer needs, as fewer parts will improve productivity and speed up development work.

Naming the project “Area 35”, Toyota aims to improve the use of plant floor space by 35 per cent.

Suzuki Motor Corp. plans to halve its current development time to around two years, while Mitsubishi Motors Corp also aims to shorten the period by 20 per cent to three years by around 2030. — Bernama-Kyodo

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东京，10 月 25 日——据共同社报道，日本汽车制造商正在加紧努力缩短车辆开发时间，以期赶上中国竞争对手，后者能够更快地向全球市场推出新车型，并更好地响应不断变化的客户需求。

丰田汽车公司、本田汽车公司、日产汽车公司和其他日本汽车制造商通常需要四到五年时间来开发一款新车型，是中国公司不到两年时间的两倍多。

作为改革措施的一部分，日产汽车旨在根据其新的以家庭为中心的汽车开发战略，大幅缩短开发时间。

这家汽车制造商将为多个相同尺寸的车型设计一个通用平台。

例如，这家汽车制造商计划将开发一款新的运动型多用途车的周期缩短至三年零一个月，以便在 2028 年在北美上市。

然后，它将使用与新款 SUV 相同的平台来开发其衍生车型，从而使开发时间缩短多达 40%，至两年半。

新的产品战略将覆盖公司全球销售额的 80%，预计可减少 70% 的零件类型。

日产汽车产品企划部副总经理佐佐木秀美表示：“这是一项改革，旨在使公司能够应对变化并及时交付优质汽车。”

本田汽车为从上个财年的首次净亏损中实现 V 型复苏，推出了“三重减半”方案，旨在充分利用人工智能和其他数字技术，将 2025 年的研发成本、时间框架和工作量减半。

新举措将从新车型开始，公司将于 2028 年开始研发这些车型。

丰田是全球销量最大的汽车制造商，它也在努力根据客户需求减少零部件种类，因为减少零部件数量可以提高生产效率并加快研发速度。

丰田将该项目命名为“35区”，旨在将工厂厂房面积利用率提高35%。

铃木汽车公司计划将目前的研发周期缩短一半至约两年，而三菱汽车公司也计划在2030年左右将研发周期缩短20%至三年。——马来西亚国家通讯社-共同社

内塔尼亚胡提出了一种“替代经济”方案，但他自己的央行却不买账。

尽管特朗普施压，美联储仍可能在美国中期选举前维持利率不变。

印尼称其70%的天然气出口留在国内——新加坡率先感受到减产的影响。

海事专家称，标签错误的棕榈油混合物可能会损害马来西亚的国际声誉。

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