Featured Toyota changing strategy?

High carbon steel and plastic is typically used for the chassis parts that tesla is replacing with aluminum alloy castings. Steel is easier to repair than aluminum and there are more parts so not all are likely to be damaged. These should not be damaged unless the impact is strong enough for frame damage, and its not easy to repair on a steel unibody vehicle. The model Y uses more traditional steel panels for the parts likely damaged in a normal collision.

Tesla Shows Model Y Chassis Protection Patent: Mega-Casting Advantages | Torque News

My guess is if a casting is damaged it will need to be replaced, but that may be better than trying to repair something that is likely never the same. This is new, and I expect with the model Y being so new it will take at least a few more years to see if the energy absorbing design is better than the more traditional design in collisions.

 

Thanks for the inputs. After reading these and results from general web searches my take aways are:

Pro's: money saver (many "ifs" need to be met), stronger part, reliability, simplification. Replacing robots and "imperfect" humans.

Con's: expensive especially up front costs, needs lots of space and/or new building to accommodate a "mega" unit, lot of waste at startups or new molds/dialing in, changing a mold in a "mega" press can take days. One mega press per line/model. Replacing humans. Crash repair. Leads to more cookie-cutter production to keep costs low (industry trend for decades). Special alloys needed. Doesn't work well with "move fast and break things" manufacturing philosophy.

I can see why other manufacturers didn't do it first but if you're building a new site for a new line.......

 

ah yes - the ol' who & the what therum. The "who" is the person bolstering their opinion by quoting one of the most Anti-tesla stock shorters namely, "Seeking-Alpha" . The "what" - is the desire to find Toyota as THE company that makes the best business decisions. they make great gas burners and plugins. But their success with all electrics? not so much. It's not that they can't .... it's just in part - they didn't want to. Less profit than a tundra or a Tacoma. Toyota has fixed the wheel falling off possibility so they will hopefully do well at playing catch up.

 

This is really not that difficult to understand. It's always about money.

If DESIRABLE BEV's that meet or surpass other propulsion tech in most every category that's important to the consumer (size, features, power, work, range, charge times, running costs, availability and PRICE) and are still profitable meeting there parameters without market subsides, then everybody would be making and selling them in record numbers. Like yesterday.

In 2022 and the foreseeable immediate future, batteries are (still) expensive.

 

Making enough batteries to meet demand does not happen by flipping a switch. There is a time lag between when a company makes the investment to increase production, and that increase happens. This isn't a new problem. Not enough batteries was an issue Toyota and Ford had back with the gen2 Prius and first Escape hybrid. Batteries, Parts Delay Hybrid Car Production - ABC News

The issue eventually sorted itself out back then. It will sort out for plug ins too. It is just demand for the EVs is higher than for hybrids was back then. Today, Toyota is making some of the least amount of investment for EV batteries, when they made the biggest for NiMH.