It’s been a very long time since auto business observers have seen Toyota as an innovator, so it was a pleasing shock when the world’s second-largest automaker demonstrated a model of the die-casting course of pioneered by Tesla, utilizing a large hydraulic press to forged the whole rear third of an auto chassis as a single piece.

As reported by Nikkei Asia, this chassis part might substitute an meeting that’s at the moment made up of 86 particular person components in a 33-step course of. Amongst different advantages, this might cut back manufacturing time for the half from a number of hours to a few minutes.

Toyota hopes the die-casting course of (or gigacasting, to make use of the time period coined by Tesla), mixed with different manufacturing advances, will cut back whole meeting occasions by 50%. The carmaker plans to point out off a few of its new processes and applied sciences in an idea EV at subsequent month’s Japan Mobility Present, and says it’ll use gigacasting to make the entrance and rear sections of a brand new EV due out in 2026.

Tesla’s gigacasting method makes use of large casting machines to make automotive our bodies with just some large forged components, saving prices and enhancing effectivity. The corporate started utilizing it to provide Mannequin Y in 2021. Quickly after, a number of Chinese language corporations positioned orders for gigapresses with the LK Group. Hyundai and Volkswagen are additionally stated to be investigating the know-how.

Did the current information that Tesla is outselling Toyota in California apply some warmth to the Japanese automaker’s company posterior? The closest factor to such an admission we’re more likely to hear is that this coy assertion from Chief Manufacturing Officer Kazuaki Shingo: “We’re studying new choices from specialised EV makers to tackle the problem” of electrification.

Supply: CarBuzz, Nikkei Asia
Photographs courtesy of Toyota