Tesla Cuts Underbody Costs by 40% with New Tech

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Tesla is able to reduce production costs for the underbody of Model Y in Giga Shanghai by 40%. It is reported that this was made possible thanks to successfully adopted integrated die-casting technology for rapid molding.

According to a report from Shanghai Securities News, Tesla has achieved significant cost reduction for the production of Model Y in Giga Shanghai. The casting shop has successfully implemented integrated die-casting technology for rapid molding. The Manager of the Structure and Thermal Management Systems at Tesla Giga Shanghai, Cui Hailun, said those parts of the underbody that were previously installed separately are now installed as one component. This in turn significantly increases production efficiency.

Compared with traditional methods, the weight of the car body is reduced by more than 10%. In addition, there are significant cost advantages due to optimized structural design and advances in materials processing. By introducing an integrated casting method for the rear underbody assembly system, costs for this part of the vehicle were reduced by an impressive 40%.

In order to produce single-piece casts for its cars, Tesla developed the Giga Press. Model Y was the manufacturer's first car to use the new production technology. However, making the front and rear single-piece casts was just the beginning. Tesla aims to cast even larger parts of the underbody and then assemble them together in a similar way to making toy cars.

An earlier report mentioned that after implementing this integrated die-casting technology for rapid molding, Tesla could reduce the development time of new cars to 18-24 months, whereas currently car manufacturers usually take 3-4 years to develop a new car.

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