Tesla News Eight Giga Presses for Gigafactory Berlin

Tesla's filings for Gigafactory Berlin offer space for new speculations about the car manufacturer and its production lines. A report in the online magazine Teslarati, for example, suggests that the eight huge casting machines which will be on site at Gigafactory are to be used to introduce new vehicles made of single-piece castings.

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According to the documents for Tesla's filings for Gigafactory Berlin, eight huge casting machines, the so-called Giga Presses, are planned on site. For the online magazine Teslarati, this is reason enough to believe that Tesla may be considering the idea of introducing new vehicles designed similarly to Model Y.

Production of Tesla Model Y vehicles is scheduled to begin as early as the first half of 2021. As we have previously reported, the rear underbody of the Model Y will be one single-piece casting. To make this ambitious project possible, the Giga Press is needed, which is the largest casting machine on the market and, according to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, is the size of a house.

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Now, a total of eight of these enormous casting machines are to be used in the Gigafactory Berlin. For this reason, the Teslarati platform speculates that, in addition to the Model Y, Model 3 could also be produced from one-piece castings, as there are already many similarities with regard to the components. One reason that speaks for this strategy is clearly the cost factor. Laurie Harbour, president at Harbour Results Inc. manufacturing consultancy has already summarized the main advantage in the past: Even with a long cycle time, the entire workload of assembling parts and substructure components is eliminated. This saves on automation cells and human labor. Teslarati concludes that the use of machines for a more affordable produced car - a potential Model 2 - could be a strategic step to compete with mass-produced vehicles such as the Renault Zoe electric vehicle.

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