Dec 16/24

How Long Does It Take to Build a Car?

The United States is a world leader in vehicle manufacturing, with AllAmerican.org reporting that we make around ten million units every year. However, it still takes a lot of time to get from the collection of the raw resources stage to a unit rolling out of a factory. With that in mind, have you ever asked, “How long does it take to build a car?”

Discover the car manufacturing process and how companies like Mayco cut through complexity to streamline production. Learn the steps to get such a machine in your hands and why it involves so much work.

Typical Car Manufacturing Timeline

Once you have the materials, the process of manufacturing a single car can vary in time. It usually takes a few workdays, even for complicated vehicles. However, in some cases, it may demand unique customizations, meaning it takes even longer.

On top of this, the design and testing process could take up to around five years. The vehicle production timeline may take even longer, depending on:

Safety testing
Market demands
Procurement
Assembly line setup

These are likely to last a few months. However, this timeline is not set in stone if a specialty model needs a prioritized manufacturing process.

The procurement process typically does not have a specific timeline behind it. It depends on the current state of the market and the availability of the materials in question. However, tracking every resource tends to be much easier in the modern world, allowing for a much better timeline estimation.

Assembly Line Process

One of the first of the auto assembly stages is the construction of the vehicle’s body. However, the body is not attached to the rest of the vehicle yet, and instead, assembly line workers will stamp it out using metal sheets. While each sheet takes a few seconds to form, a whole batch can take much longer to complete.

At the same time, the manufacturer builds the frame of the car. They may choose to do this in-house or outsource it to a special frame production facility, which reduces the time to build a vehicle internally. The creation of frames only takes about one or two hours.

Various internal parts, including the engines and upholstery, are also constructed at this point or shipped in, ready to insert into the vehicle.

Then, the manufacturer will combine these parts, with the body attached to the frame. Constructing the vehicle’s body on the assembly line using robots to perform repetitive tasks like welding and painting speeds up the process and offers precision, taking only one to two hours. The consistency of such methods also helps to push a vehicle batch out into the warehouse much faster.