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According to a report by Japan's Kyodo News, Japanese automakers are stepping up efforts to shorten vehicle development times as they seek to catch up with competitors that are launching new models in the global market more quickly and to better respond to changing customer needs. Toyota Motor, Honda Motor, Nissan Motor and other Japanese automakers typically need about four to five years to develop a new model. As part of its reform measures, Nissan aims to significantly shorten development times through its new family-style vehicle development strategy. The automaker will design a common platform for multiple models of the same size. This new product strategy will cover 80% of the company's global sales and is expected to reduce the variety of parts by 70%. Toyota, the world's largest automaker by sales, is also working to reduce the variety of parts based on customer needs, because fewer parts will improve production efficiency and speed up development work. Toyota has named the plan "Area 35," aiming to increase the utilization rate of factory floor space by 35%. Suzuki Motor plans to halve its current development time to about two years, while Mitsubishi Motors also plans to shorten its development cycle by 20% to three years by around 2030.