Toyota Motor has stated it would undertake a expertise Tesla pioneered generally known as “Gigacasting” as a part of a technique by the Japanese automaker to enhance the efficiency – and decrease the associated fee – of future electric vehicles (EVs).
Toyota shouldn’t be alone in following Tesla’s breakthrough.
This is a take a look at Gigacasting and the way the innovation is forcing automakers to scramble to match Tesla:
What’s gigacasting?
The Giga Press is an aluminum die-casting machine adopted by Tesla at its factories within the U.S., China and Germany. The home-sized machines are capable of produce aluminum elements far larger than something used earlier than in auto manufacturing.
The “giga” within the title is a nod to Tesla’s conference of calling its vegetation “Gigafactories”. Different automakers have taken to calling them “megapresses,” which can also discuss with smaller however nonetheless large machines.
In operation, the press takes in a shot of molten aluminum of 80 kilograms (176 kilos) or extra right into a mould the place it’s shaped into a component, launched after which shortly cooled.
Tesla has developed an aluminum alloy that additionally permits it to skip the warmth treating historically used to extend the energy of the forged half.
What is the payoff?
Usually greater than 100 individually stamped steel elements have been welded collectively to make a automotive physique.
Fewer elements, decrease prices and a simplified manufacturing line have contributed to Tesla’s industry-leading per-car profitability, analysts have stated.
For Tesla, the usage of a single part within the rear of the Model Y — its best-selling mannequin — allowed it to chop associated prices by 40%, the corporate has stated.
Within the Model 3, through the use of a single piece from the entrance and rear of the car, Tesla was capable of take away 600 robots from meeting, Elon Musk has stated.
It may possibly additionally lower a car’s weight — an necessary consideration for EVs the place the battery pack alone can weigh greater than 1,500 kilos. And it has the potential to cut back waste and greenhouse emissions from a plant.
Toyota stated it anticipated that utilizing aluminum die-casting would eradicate dozens of sheetmetal elements from meeting and cut back waste.
Who makes these machines?
Tesla sources its presses from Italy-based IDRA, which has been a unit of China’s LK Industries since 2008.
Opponents of IDRA and LK embrace Buhler Group in Europe, Ube and Shibaura Machine in Japan, and Yizumi and Haitian in China.
The worldwide aluminum die-casting market was price virtually $73 billion final yr and is projected to high $126 billion by 2032, confirmed an AlixPartners evaluation.
Who’s chasing it?
Along with Toyota, General Motors, Hyundai Motor and associates of China’s Geely — Volvo Vehicles, Polestar and Zeekr — are utilizing the expertise or planning for it.
Zeekr has began utilizing large aluminum die casts for a multi-purpose van it makes on the market in China and has stated it would introduce the expertise for different fashions.
Volvo stated final yr it could make investments greater than $900 million to improve its plant close to Gothenburg, Sweden, to incorporate megapress expertise.
What is the catch?
Price is one.
Tesla data most of its gross sales with simply two fashions: the Mannequin 3 and Mannequin Y. Excessive gross sales quantity on simply two platforms make it simpler to justify the funding in new manufacturing expertise. Different EV startups even have that benefit.
For legacy automakers with extra sophisticated product lineups and manufacturing facility equipment that’s already amortized, the choice to take a position tens of tens of millions of {dollars} in new casting expertise could be a tougher name, analysts have stated.
Vehicles with physique sections forged into single items may be tougher or dearer to repair after an accident. That might add to the price of operation for EVs.
Already insurance companies are totaling Teslas and different EVs with low mileage if they’ve broken batteries as a result of there’s typically no strategy to restore even barely broken battery packs.
