Tesla’s Cybertruck would have its body casted by the world’s largest casting machine, confirmed the company’s CEO Elon Musk. The company bought many units of the biggest ever Gigapress machine, adding to its arsenal of several Giga Casting machines at its Fremont factory.
Tesla installed and had its first Giga Press functioning at this factory in 2020, when such a machine was one of its kind that offered a clamping force of 55,000 to 61,000 kilonewtons (5,600to 6,200 tf). Since many years now, Tesla has been investing a lot in casting and alloy technology that will allow it to cast larger parts to streamline its manufacturing.
These giant multi-million dollar machines are developed by Idra, which had been teasing a new 9.000 pound Giga Press that would claim to be the world’s largest. Since then, rumours were out that the new machine would be for Tesla.
Tesla’s Gigafactory in Berlin installed eight of these Giga Casting machines, the largest any Gigafactory in the world ever had. Apart from these all of Tesla’s other Giga machines have been installed in an open space outside the Fremont factory premises as there is no space to accommodate these on the factory floor. Tesla’s Model Y has its front and rear underbody single-piece castings made using these machines. These single-piece castings replace 70 different parts in the vehicle.
The fact that the giant Gigamachines will be used to cast the body of Cybertruck does not come as a surprise, given the earlier updates offered to us by Tesla on the car. It had earlier disclosed that Cybertruck will be built using a stainless-steel exoskeleton body that called for an upgrade in the company’s casting abilities.
Disclosed to the world in 2019, the electric pickup truck should have been in production by now. However, the shift in focus to producing Model Y brought in a delay. Tesla plans to commence production in 2023 for the Cybertruck.
