Featured Gigacasting 2.0: Tesla looks to diecast nearly the entire underbody in one piece

we've spent a hundred years de-urbanizing and building roads. let's be realistic

 

Parts are glued if they are too thin or the wrong material to be welded. sometimes things are glued and welded. It took the auto industry a long time to get welds in these areas correct but they did it decades ago (GM put the first welding robot in operation in 1962, by 1990 things were dialed in and moved accross all the major manufacturers). If you have bought a lot of the welding robots, the stamping tools, and other automation to glue the parts, then their is less of a reason to change. Still it makes putting a new model in production harder than simply designing the right mold. You need to design all the individual parts, program the robots, crash test, then do redesign.

The disadvantage of the castings is materials, as the article I quoted above. Tesla innovated with some aluminum alloys that work, but this material is more expensive than steel, and it really took until 2022 for tesla to get the molds right for the front and rear castings for the model Y. Ramping production is easier, but the equipment is very large for an old plant, easy to design in to a new plant like tesla has been building.

I am sorry you are not happy with your purchase. Plug in vehicles are not for everyone. I'm not sure whether toyota will have replacement batteries as cheap when they need replacing on your prime, but simple economics is going to push phevs over full hybrids. The new prime has a 13.6 kwh battery, which by the time it needs replacing in a non crash should cost toyota much less than $2000, likely around $1000. I have no idea what they will sell it for, but in the mean time even when battery capacity diminishes, range will be reduced but it still will operate as a hybrid when the battery gets low after the electric miles.

I think more manufacturers will go megacasing at least for the rear to improve quality. A megacast for the center floor where the battery goes makes a lot of sense too.

 

Good to know. It isn’t in my lifetime of owning a car probably.
Passed my drivers test, good for five more years. The CA test was more difficult than in the past, many old people struggling, retaking it. Not really difficult in itself and you can miss quite a few questions before failing. Some of the old folks I thought were in distress as they saw their driving privilege in jeopardy. That’s where I am now, in that world. I took my new license out last night just to look at it again.
Still I would never buy a car with those large castings. This will be further nightmares for insurance companies in my opinion. I know the body shops now can put a badly damaged car back on the road, all straightened out.

 

I’m terrifically happy with my purchase. I think I explained what I said. I even sold the first 2020 Prime to Carvana for a profit, bought an older car in nice shape. That didn’t last and I spotted a 2020 Limited for a good price. So I got another one. I got it May 3 and I haven’t put gas in it yet. Probably tomorrow. All my charging has been free. I have to look where the gas release is, don’t remember.
There is nothing wrong with engineered industrial glueing, but always mentioning it when talking about the casting makes it seem so. I would not buy a car with those castings.
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I’m hoping the new 25k Tesla is one big piece.
If my bolt falls through, I’ll be all over it.
Imagine a brand new Tesla at 14k net, minus my 8k trade?
Mind boggling

 

When we moved closer to work, my wife my wife got the equivalent of two weeks of vacation time.

That said, lots of other aspects of city design can make cities friendlier to mass transit, bikes and pedestrians.

 

I agree whole heartedly! As I've pointed out before, I've had at least 7 neighbors ran over by SUV's, 4 that died. I'm not that far from work, schools, store, church, etc. and walking or biking is perfectly possible for the whole family (the farthest on bike takes me 20 minutes). But the streets are not made for walking on. No sidewalks, no bike paths, people drive like maniacs, and everyone around here, for some odd reason, has to own a vehicle with a 5ft tall nose.

 

Recycling is not a hard problem:



Bob Wilson

 

If the gigacasting is pretty much the whole car, I don't see many pulling one out and taking it home that easily at a Pull-A-Part. If it's big enough, it could include the car's VIN, which would make it illegal to install on another vehicle.

 

Yeah like that vin switcheroo has never been done before.

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For a DIY'er, sure, it can be done. But for the other 99.9% of the population that brings their car into a certified mechanic shop...

 

So why not include the VIN in a knockout wall of the mold, like they do for the date slugs on tires?

Then the VIN is included in the item itself. You can grind the relief off to obscure the source of one, but you aren't likely to use a ground-off one as the basis for a fake.

 

I was happy to see Toyota planning to go modular, gigacasting:

But how did they put this 'brass board' together without a real press?

Watching Autoline Daily:

Toyota literally cut the body into three pieces.

The final version will require some sort of telescoping or overlapping beams to give enough body stiffness and strength to pass safety crash testing.

Bob Wilson

 

Welds and glue are how unibodies are built. Tesla and Toyota have the expertise. Toyota has invested in the equipment, tesla is going a different way in buying enough equipment. I would think toyota would benefit from a rear gigacasting, and are likely looking to see how well tesla and volvo are doing it.

 

A belt and suspenders engineer, I would use a combination:

• lateral plates interlaced - maximum strength for side impacts
• stir welding both sides - consistent, robot, structural welds
• nested 'C' sections - adds the web for additional strength

Bob Wilson

 

Welding cast aluminum is going to be quite a bit more difficult and potentially inferior to the current welding of stamped steel.

 

So, it seems that premiums for full coverage on the Model Y have actually dropped significantly for 2024 (in Germany). This could mean that either giga casting isn't yet a major factor for insurance in 2024, or it's not particularly relevant for repairs. Alternatively, it could be unrelated and overshadowed by other factors.

 

Maybe it's more repairable or less prone to damage or just cheaper to repair than we think.

Speaking of insurance, I'm affraid what is happening in California is starting to happen in Colorado. Let's hope it doesn't get to the point we can no longer insure our homes and cars.

 

Maybe make the whole car one piece of carbon fiber plastic. If it gets hit, just get another plastic car. Why not. Take the old one to the recycling yard. Stuff is pretty tough. There’s already a guy showing a crack in his giga cast aluminum. Hard sell to say that’s not expensive to replace.