- Jan. 11th 2021 11:28 am PT
Tesla has started production of the Model Y with a massive single-piece rear casting, according to a picture of a new unit of the electric SUV. It’s the automaker’s latest move into massive casting techniques.
In recent years, Tesla has focused on making bigger casting parts in order to build bigger parts of its vehicles in single pieces to facilitate manufacturing.
We saw the first results of that effort in the rear underbody of the Model Y.
In Model 3, the rear underbody (left) is made of 70 different metal parts, but Tesla managed to change that into just two big parts in the Model Y (right):
Tesla didn’t just release diagrams, but it also shared actual pictures of the giant cast part used in the Model Y versus all the welded parts in the Model 3:
CEO Elon Musk said that Tesla wouldn’t stop there and plans to increasingly use bigger parts in its vehicles, including moving from two to one part for the underbody.
This new strategy is enabled by a new giant casting machine, the biggest in the world, that Tesla acquired, and subsequently ordered many more machines.
In September 2020, we reported on Tesla installing the first casting machine outside Fremont factory.
The machine is so big that it couldn’t be assembled inside the factory, so Tesla seems to have assembled it outside and built a roof over it.
A few weeks later, Tesla China announced that they started operating the machine.
From starting production, we didn’t know how quickly Tesla would be able to use the new part in production Model Y vehicles.
Now we can confirm that the new single-casting rear underbody is in new Model Y vehicles.
The owner of a Model Y produced in late December removed the lining of his trunk for the installation of a third-party accessory and could see the new part:
Model Y single piece rear casting! VIN 97k, delivered 12/23/2020. Thanks @TeslaFrunk for the rear kick sensor installation pic.twitter.com/jkIGwX265v
— Tony Pham – “Quick Bandit” license plate mount (@TonyTesla4Life) January 10, 2021
We can see in the picture that there’s no joint in the middle, and it’s a single piece in which Tesla fits the trunk’s tub.
Tesla plans to produce more large cast parts in the future, and it is adding new giant casting machine at Gigafactory Berlin, Shanghai, and Texas.
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