Nissan has significantly reduced the time it takes to develop new vehicles, cutting it from 50 months to 37 months.
The upcoming Skyline was developed in just 26 months.
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This achievement comes after Nissan studied how Chinese automakers operate.
Kazuyuki Yamaguchi, a corporate executive at Nissan, said the company must bring products to market faster to survive.
Key Changes in Development
Previously, Nissan aimed for perfection in all areas, which dragged out planning and development. Now, it focuses on the best aspects of a car.
The company no longer creates multiple designs for each new vehicle. Instead, it groups vehicles into families with common hard points, making them quicker to design.
Nissan also relies more on AI-powered modeling, digital twin engineering, and virtual reality to test vehicles before building physical prototypes.
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Advanced automated driving functions allow engineers to test vehicles overnight.
Yamaguchi acknowledged that Nissan no longer has the luxury of time.
The company has streamlined its leadership, with the program director taking the lead and the chief vehicle engineer delivering a vehicle that meets targets.
Despite these improvements, Nissan still can't match Chinese automakers, who develop new models in as little as 18-24 months.
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Yamaguchi attributes this to different work cultures, noting that China works 24 hours a day, which isn't possible in Japan.
