Tesla wants to further expand ‘gigacasting’ for ‘Unboxed’ production

‘Gigacasting’ refers to a process in which large parts can be made in one piece using a gigantic press. At Tesla, this press is (of course) called Giga Press and was invented by the Italian Idra Group. Large parts of the front and rear of the Model Y’s base plate are currently being removed from this press, with which Tesla has already taken an important first step. However, Reuters says it understands from internal sources that the ‘Giga Press’ has to become much more gigantic. The goal is to make an entire base plate in one piece. That would save a lot of money, the sources report, because such an underbody is usually converted from about 400 parts.

The one-piece base plate is part of a previously announced production method that Tesla calls ‘unboxed’. The brand wants to completely rethink the production process and introduce a different sequence, so that the process becomes simpler and therefore cheaper and can also be carried out more easily by robots. This is already happening partly due to the current Giga Press, but also because the battery pack is already used as part of the floor and certain interior parts, such as the front seats, are already mounted on it before the floor is united with the rest of the car.

The current method of production above, the ‘Unboxed’ method below.

‘Unboxed’ means that various components, for example left side, right side, front, back and base plate, are already completely assembled and only then united with each other. This makes the various ‘pieces’ around much more accessible to people or robots and prevents parts from having to be assembled multiple times, as is now often the case with doors, for example. An interior is also now usually screwed into an otherwise fairly complete car through the door openings, which makes the production process unnecessarily complex in the eyes of Tesla. The risk of disruptions to the entire production line would also be very high with the current method, because one blockage during final assembly would stop the entire car – and the cars behind it. By first completely assembling several, larger parts, the chance of such a serious disruption is significantly reduced, according to Tesla.

In the photo gallery above you will find the current production process and the production process desired by Tesla, after the opening image. A detailed discussion of those wishes can be found here.