Posted Apr 7, 2022, 1:30 PM
Elon Musk is not content with simply revolutionizing the automobile. The global electric car pioneer is also becoming a noted industrial innovator: it has been using ‘giga presses’ to build its cars for the past two years – a breakthrough carefully studied by many manufacturers, including Mercedes and Volvo. “Tesla is totally reinventing car factories and the way cars are made,” Morgan Stanley analysts wrote last October.
Introduced in 2020 at the historic Fremont, California plant for produce the Model Y , these giant presses, the size of a small house, are now present in all the assembly plants of the American firm – in Shanghai, Berlin , and Austin. They make it possible to manufacture the entire rear part of the chassis at once, by injecting a molten aluminum alloy into a giant mold, then subjected to a pressure of 6,100 tonnes.
Delete Weld Steps
This process results in a single large casting part, where more than 70 parts were needed on the Model 3. small, with pressures of 2,000 or 2,500 tons, “explains Michael Valentin, associate director at Opeo and author of a book on the manufacturer.
“With these new machines, Tesla avoids many assembly and welding steps, which allows it to save time and reduce costs: about 10% on the structure of the car”, continues the specialist.
At a interview with the automotive expert Sandy Munro, Elon Musk explained that the giga presses made it possible to remove 300 robots from the assembly line. The use of aluminum will also make it possible to lighten cars, a valuable asset for the autonomy of electric vehicles, takes over from his side Bertrand Rakoto , consultant at Ducker in Detroit.
Tesla engineers worked for more than a year with their supplier, the Italian Idra Group, a subsidiary of the Hong Kong group LK Technology, to develop this innovative machine.
The American manufacturer intends to use it in the future to also produce the front of the chassis, as well as the trays for the batteries, which will allow it to eliminate 370 parts. In a tweet dating back to January 2021, Elon Musk explained that he wanted to make his cars “like we make toys”.
With our giant casting machines, we are literally trying to make full-size cars in the same way that toy cars are made
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 18, 2021
Many manufacturers are studying the experience of the American firm. “Chinese newcomers Nio and Xpeng have followed Tesla’s lead, ordering 12,000 ton injection molding machines. And Mercedes has announced its intention to use giant foundry parts for its Vision EQXX, a concept car unveiled at the last CES in Las Vegas, ”recalls Bertrand Rakoto. Finally, Volvo has announced that it would use this technology for its new models at its plant in Torslanda, Sweden, starting in 2025.
Volkswagen boss Herbert Diess has set himself the goal of manufacturing his future electric cars in 10 hours like Tesla in Berlin, instead of 30 hours for his ID3s today. He has yet to announce his intention to use giga presses, but his decision to build a brand new plant in Wolfsburg will allow him to integrate if necessary.
Classified as wreck
However, these giga presses do not only have advantages. “They are suitable only for large volumes, given the development times required,” says Michaël Valentin. Giant parts are also more complicated, if not impossible, to change in the event of an accident. “They cannot be straightened or replaced: if they break, the vehicle will be classified as a wreck by insurers,” says Bertrand Rakoto.
Oliver Zipse, the boss of BMW, has moreover dismissed last November the idea of producing such giant pieces. Not only because of the extra cost of the giga presses, which he considers excessive in relation to the savings made, but also precisely because of the excessively high repair costs.