Development times at Nissan have been slashed from 50 to 37 months. In the case of the new Skyline, it has taken just 26 months to develop. A slew of significant changes have helped Nissan overhaul its R&D. Nissan has had a rough time over the past couple of years, but it could be turning things around. One of its most ambitious aims has been to slash the development times of new models, taking inspiration from what its Chinese rivals have done. Speaking during a recent event at Nissan’s global headquarters, corporate executive Kazuyuki Yamaguchi said that if the company isn’t able to bring new products to the market more quickly, it won’t survive. Thanks to a series of important changes, Nissan says it’s cut development times for all-new vehicles from 50 months to 37 months, while updated derivative models can now be developed in 30 months, which is 40 percent quicker than previously. Read: Nissan Built The Next Skyline In Half The Time By Copying China Doing this hasn’t been easy. According to Auto News, Yamaguchi says that in the past, planning and development times would be dragged out as the brand looked to achieve perfection in all areas. Now, it prioritizes the best aspects of a car. In addition, it no longer creates multiple designs for a new vehicle and slowly chooses between them, but rather groups its vehicles into families which have common hard points, meaning they are much quicker to design. Leaning On AI Technology is also being used more heavily. Rather than always building and testing physical models and prototypes, the company now uses more AI-powered modeling and testing, as well as digital twin engineering and virtual reality, to test vehicles in the virtual world before they ever need to be built. Its advanced automated driving functions also allow engineers to test vehicles through the night. Acknowledging the company “no longer [has] the luxury of time,” Yamaguchi added that it no longer has a separate program director, product planning manager, and chief vehicle engineer for each new vehicle, as opinions could clash, leading to delays. Now, the program director takes the lead, and the chief vehicle engineer is tasked with delivering a vehicle that meets targets. While Nissan has been able to speed up development times, including creating the all-new Skyline in just 26 months, it still can’t quite match the Chinese, who can develop new models in as little as 18-24 months. Speaking with Auto News, Yamaguchi suggested this is partly due to different work cultures between the two countries. Whereas in China they work 24 hours a day, doing so in Japan isn’t possible. Next-gen Nissan Skyline teaser
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