1、Automotive product development:how to become faster and cheaper through digitalizationPhoto by Rachael Rinchiuso Kearney,ChicagoSmart digitalization can save up to a year of development time and 20 percent of R&D costs.Executive summaryThe automotive industry is changing fast.It is grappling with mu

2、ltiple technical challenges,such as electrification,the software-defined vehicle,the transformation of the electrical/electronic(E/E)architecture,and developing autonomous driving.At the same time,incumbent automotive companies need to get closer to their customers to help fend off competition from

3、innovative challengers,including new,pure battery electric vehicle(BEV)players such as Tesla,Rivian,Nio,BYD,and Lucid.The challenges with emerging technologies call for huge upfront investments,while the pace of change means that development time lines need to be as short as possible to avoid produc

4、ing an outdated car.It is,therefore,more important than ever to strive for efficiency in product development processes and reduce the time it takes to bring innovation to market.To that end,we analyzed the future BEV development plans of both incumbent(SOP 2024)and challenger original equipment manu

5、facturers(OEMs;latest development)and identified nine essential best practices to lower costs and speed up the development process,while maintaining high quality standards.Two best practices have already been covered in our ongoing article series on product development.This article is a deep dive in

6、to the five best practices,focusing on the series development phase of the vehicle itself.For example,it explains how consequent simulation,parallelization,digital supplier integration,and use of virtual reality(VR)for collaborative design and styling can save OEMs both time and money.By implementin