The Roland Berger Automotive Outlook 2040 report leaves no room for doubt: Chinese manufacturers will control between 25% and 34% of the global market. Their advantage is not just cost, but a software-defined electric vehicle and development cycles of just 18 to 24 months. For the 3D sector, this is a call to arms: simulation, real-time visualization, and digital twins will be mandatory tools, not optional ones.
Digital twins: the shortcut to competing in record time 🚀
The pressure to launch models every two years forces the abandonment of traditional physical prototypes. The industry must adopt standardized platforms where design, validation, and production converge in a virtual environment. Real-time visualization allows iterating on geometries, materials, and behaviors without waiting to manufacture a single part. Digital twins not only simulate the final product but also monitor its entire life cycle, reducing errors and costs. Those who do not integrate these tools will be out of the game before 2030.
Meanwhile, in Europe, we are still deciding the color of the logo 😅
While Chinese teams launch a model every 18 months, here we are still debating in three-hour meetings whether a curve's radius should be 12.4 or 12.5 millimeters. The irony is that we have the same simulation software, but we use it to create presentation renders that no one approves on the first try. If we do not speed up, the only digital twin we will see will be that of our own early retirement. 3D is not the problem; the biological pace of our approvals is.