Toyota uses gigacasting to make 1/3 of a car's body in 3 minutes

Reports state the first EV with its front and rear section made via gigacasting will be out in 2026.

According to reports, Toyota has developed a prototype of a new gigacasting equipment capable of manufacturing a third of a car's body in just 3 minutes.

The prototype machine located in Toyota's Myochi plant, was showcased to journalists recently. The carmaker showed how molten aluminium poured into the machine was rapidly cooled from 700-deg C down to 250-deg C, solidifying the single die-cast piece which made up the entire rear third of the vehicle's chassis. As a reference, the same piece built normally involves 86 parts in a 33-step process and takes hours to complete.

Reports state the first EV with its front and rear section made via gigacasting will be out in 2026.

Toyota's first gigacasting prototype was said to be built in September 2022, with the initial molds taking a day to swap out. However, this process is now cut down to just 20 minutes, by reducing the number of parts that need to be detached. With the use of the gigacasting machine and proprietary software to analyse the optimal conditions for molding, Toyota aims to improve production by 20%.

As per reports, the high battery costs make EVs difficult to offer profitability by just expanding on conventional methods of production. Hence, Kazuaki Shingo, Chief Production Officer of Toyota stated, "We're learning new options from specialized EV makers to take on the challenge."

The Japanese carmaker aims to sell 1.5 million EVs by 2026, of which 40% will be built on the existing TNGA platform, while the rest will be underpinned by an EV-specific architecture. As a point of reference, in 2022, Toyota sold just 24,000 EVs.

Source: Asia.nikkei