As Toyota, Honda and other Japanese carmakers seek to make up for lost ground in the shift to electric vehicles, they’re starting to embrace a disruptive technology that’s become one of the industry’s hottest topics: gigacasting.
Tesla pioneered the use of huge machines capable of casting entire sections of a chassis in a single step, replacing dozens of parts that were welded together previously. The process helps manufacturers squeeze out savings — in terms of time, equipment, labor and cost — from every EV they assemble.
"Our vision is to reduce the cost of production of full electric cars in such a way that the full electric car can be bought also by normal people,” said Riccardo Ferrario, general manager of Idra Group, the Italian manufacturer that built the first gigapress for Tesla in 2020.