Chinese OEMs Accelerating New Vehicle Development (1)

New car development reduced to 20 months: How Geely and Chery are shortening development times

2026/11/05

Summary
1. Trends toward shorter new vehicle development cycles: From 40 to 50 months to around 20 months
2. What does "Development Period" mean? Development processes and efforts to shorten them at various companies (Part 1)

Summary

Among Chinese automakers, there is a growing trend to shorten the new vehicle development cycle from the traditional 3 to 4 years to around 20 months. What kind of development processes and organizational structures make these time savings possible?

This report focuses on the structure of the time required for development activities, as well as changes in development processes and the division of roles, and provides a detailed analysis of the initiatives undertaken by various Chinese OEMs. Furthermore, this report examines the local development efforts of Japanese OEMs in the Chinese market and Nissan’s overhaul of its development process to explore the reality of accelerating new vehicle development. This has been organized into the following three parts.

Part 1, "New car development reduced to 20 months: How Geely and Chery are shortening development times,” begins by comparing development times with those of Japanese OEMs and then examines how these companies approach development time and utilize architectures and platforms, based on case studies of Geely (Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., Ltd.) and Chery (Chery Automobile Co., Ltd.).

Part 2, “How to achieve a 20-month development cycle: Development process reforms led by Chinese OEMs,” will examine case studies from GAC (Guangzhou Automobile Group Co., Ltd.) and BYD (BYD Co., Ltd.) to outline mechanisms for shortening development cycles, such as accelerating decision-making and implementing parallel processes.

Part 3, “Changes in new vehicle development by Japanese OEMs: Progress in local development in China and Nissan’s process overhaul,” will examine the development of the Toyota bZ4X, the GAC Toyota bZ3X, and the Dongfeng Nissan N7, as well as Nissan’s efforts to overhaul its development process, and explore the changes spreading to Japanese OEMs.

*This report analyzes the shortening of new vehicle development cycles and changes in the development process based on publicly available materials from various companies, statements by executives, and information gathered through interviews. Details regarding the development schedules and design and verification procedures for individual vehicle models are described only to the extent of the publicly available information.

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