Industry

Cars developed in 18 months, the new industrial miracle

Thanks to the synergies of technological expertise between the French and Chinese development centres, the Renault group has reduced the time to market and this is the new hi-tech challenge for competitiveness

by Simonluca Pini

3 March 2026

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

When skating on thin ice, salvation lies in speed. A metaphor from the American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson that is perfectly usable in the automotive world, where the market is getting thinner and thinner and acting quickly is synonymous with survival and success over those who take too many months to get on the road with the finished product. Because while it is important to choose the most effective strategy, not acting puts competitors at an advantage. Translated? Goodbye to the traditional 48-60 months to go from the white sheet to the car on the road, with times reduced to 18 months thanks to leaner procedures, faster software development, less use of external suppliers and above all a shorter decision-making chain. Speed has become one of the added values of the Chinese automotive industry, with design, development and arrival on the market times that are difficult to apply in Europe.

The Renault Twingo case

Precisely for this reason, the Renault Group decided to literally get help, by their own admission, from a Chinese team for the development of the electric Twingo. Designed in Paris, it was developed in the ACDC (Advanced China Development Centre), Renault's electric car development centre in Shanghai by a predominantly local team. The time cut was automatic. In nine months, Twingo went from concept to prototype. In five months from prototype to pre-industrialisation. Also because, another fundamental decision, all styling solutions were made in-house, without recourse to external technical studies, and the development of components was possible without contracting external suppliers. All this brought the time to market down to two years. For comparison, it was four years for Clio 5 and Captur, three for Renault 5 and four for Scenic. The electric Twingo saw time cuts of 16 per cent in the design phase, 41 per cent in the concept phase, and 26 per cent in the pre-industrialisation phase.

Stellantis and Xiaomi

This is not the first time that a European group has outsourced the design of a car, especially to solve software-side problems. Stellantis, for example, for the Smart Car platform (an inexpensive offshoot of the French Cmp) relied on Indian engineers from Tata Consulting who put their hands on the object originally developed with Dongfeng.

Another perfect example of speed of realisation and market debut comes from Xiaomi, where in just three years it has gone from never having produced a car in its history to a brand capable of challenging its European competitors. To produce the first car and subsequently a range of zero-emission models, Xiaomi has earmarked a total of USD 10 billion by 2031, with an initial investment of USD 1.5 billion. The added value of the electric car produced by Xiaomi is that it is integrated within the smart ecosystem developed by the Chinese manufacturer, which ranges from smartphones to household appliances and scooters. These features have drastically reduced the time needed for software and battery management, among the most complex bottlenecks today.

Gigacasting

Returning to the increasingly rapid production of cars, it is crucial to remember how the production of cars is also changing, starting with 'block' production. Christened Gigacasting by Tesla, it is a production system based on 'giga presses' capable of joining a long list of components in a single mould. To give an example, the Tesla Model Y chassis is based on two pieces, while that of the Model 3 has 171 pieces joined by 1,600 welds. Technology also recently introduced by Volvo for the production of the EX60 electric SUV.