Japanese carmakers to cut development times to counter Chinese rivals

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 carmak…READ FULL ARTICLE