Speed is everything! Major automotive manufacturers are all "learning from China"

A competition centered around "speed" is intensifying in the global automotive industry. Traditional Western automotive giants, from Ford to Volkswagen, are borrowing the rapid and low-cost vehicle development models of their Chinese counterparts with unprecedented vigor.

Recent updates show that Ford has chosen Renault as a partner to jointly produce small electric vehicles in Europe, with the latter successfully shortening the development time for its new models to less than two years. Germany's Volkswagen has also reduced the development cycle for its new electric vehicles produced in China by 30% from the traditional four years. The N7 electric sedan, co-developed by Nissan and its Chinese partner Dongfeng, was launched in China this year after approximately two years of development and will begin exporting next year.

Behind this series of actions is a consensus among global automotive executives: in an era of rapid technological iteration, changing consumer tastes, and supply chain disruptions caused by geopolitical factors, speed has become a necessary condition for survival. Faster development cycles not only keep pace with market rhythms but also significantly reduce costs by shortening engineering time, thereby enhancing price competitiveness.

"Chinese Speed": From Four Years to Two Years

Traditionally, it takes automotive manufacturers four years or longer to develop a new vehicle, but in China, this cycle averages only 18 to 20 months. Now, Western automakers are striving to catch up to this speed.

Renault is a pioneer in this regard. Its all-new Twingo electric vehicle, set to launch in 2026, has a development cycle of just 21 months. The new Dacia Hipster microcar, based on the same platform, will have an astonishing development time of just 16 months. Laurence Noël, head of global automotive business at consulting firm Capgemini, candidly points out, "If you take five years to develop a car, by the time it hits the market, you're already out. So you have to be fast."

Nissan's Chief Financial Officer, Jérémie Papin, also believes that faster development is "absolutely critical," especially for companies lacking economies of scale. He states, "This is also how you manufacture a highly cost-competitive car, because you spend less time on engineering, thus lowering costs."

The Secret: Cultural Change is More Critical than Technology

To achieve leaps in speed, Western automakers are not only adopting digital tools such as virtual design and testing but, more importantly, they are undergoing a profound cultural transformation, learning agility and flexibility from their Chinese counterparts.

Jim Baumbick, head of Ford Europe, points out that Chinese companies like BYD enhance speed by using more common parts while concentrating major innovations on software and digital technology. Renault's experience is even more representative, as it has established a "China Advanced Development Center" in Shanghai with about 150 local engineers. Vittorio d’Arienzo, an executive in Renault's Ampere electric vehicle division, states that compared to the one to three months of supplier communication processes required in Europe, "in China, suppliers are accustomed to manufacturing parts on-site, which halves the time."

In the development of this Twingo, about 45% of the components come from China. Engineers and designers work on different parts in parallel, and the factory also begins preparing the production line in Slovenia simultaneously When the team was dissatisfied with a design for an interior door handle, they quickly communicated and made modifications across multiple countries via WhatsApp, avoiding the traditional multi-level reporting process. Renault CEO François Provost summarized, "We need strong momentum to be as competitive as our Chinese rivals in Europe."