More than 10 million vehicles are expected to feature large die-cast, or gigacast, parts with the rise of electric vehicles (EV) by 2030, according to a Forbes piece written by Raghunandan Gurumurthy, Crossover Solutions, director of North American Operations.

Gigacasting offers OEMS a lightweight and high-strength option to improve fuel efficiency and reduce emissions, the article says. 

“EV battery packs currently in use weigh between 668 and almost 3,000 pounds, compared to 300 to 1,000 pounds for traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) components,” the article says. “This weight difference significantly impacts vehicle range, performance and efficiency, making weight reduction a critical priority for EV manufacturers.”

Volvo Cars recently told Reuters it plans to use a single software system backed by Nvidia chips and rely on megacasting, also known as gigacasting, to make large single-piece aluminum vehicle underbodies to cut costs for EVs. 

The die-cast process also reduces the number of car parts significantly, the Forbes article says. It adds Tesla reduced the total number of parts by 370 with its Model 3 and reported a 40% cost reduction for the rear of its Model Y by using gigacasting. 

“While exact production time savings vary, industry experts suggest significant reductions in manufacturing time and complexity,” the Forbes  article says. 

According to the article, a comparison of manufacturing methods for producing 100,000 rear underbody units per year shows that the upfront costs for megacasting to be more expensive. It says steel stamping and tooling costs about $3.4 million in equipment and tooling, while megasting needs a $6 million HPDC machin and another $1.2 million to $1.5 million in tooling. 

Yet, gigacasting can complete 27.8 doable jobs per hour verses 24.4 with steel stamping, the article says. This speed of gigacasting reduces labor and other other indirect costs, it says. 

“While gigacasting uses more expensive materials ($151 to $226 vs. $75.6 for steel), the overall cost benefits are substantial, and changing mold designs offers more flexible than modifying hundreds of parts in a complex supply chain,” the article says. 

Gigacasting requires advanced equipment capable of rapidly delivering large volumes of molten aluminum, the article says. It also needs highly complex molds with sophisticated cooling and venting systems and sufficient vacuum assistance to reduce porosity. 

Another gigacasting cost for OEMs includes quality control and inspection, the article says. 

“Ensuring the quality of gigacast parts requires advanced nondestructive testing methods, including computed tomography (CT) scanning, in-process monitoring using machine learning algorithms, and extensive mechanical testing,” according tot he article. “A single defect can result in scrapping large, expensive components.”

Auto Evolution reported last year about a customer who found a “sizable” crack in the front aluminum casting of his Tesla Model Y. 

“At delivery, I inspected the car based on the main things other owners said to check,” he told Auto Evolution. “At the time, everything was fine, but I did not check the frame or structural members, as the car was new from the factory, and one shouldn’t have to check that.”

Gigacasting also limits production flexibility because the machines constrains the type of parts that it can produce, the article says. This also makes it difficult to integrate gigacast parts with other vehicle components, it says. 

Repairability is another concern highlighted by the article. 

“Due to the integrated nature of parts, there are concerns about potential increases in life cycle costs for consumers, as they will not be able to easily replace individual sections that receive damage,” the article says. 

Ducker Carlisle’s Automotive and Materials Principal Abey Abraham and Strategic Intelligence Director Bertrand Rakoto previously told Repairer Driven News that megacasting, new components, and new alloys that vehicles are made of change repairability and repair processes that make certain training and equipment critical for repair shops.

“It requires an extra level of cautiousness with regards to how all the materials are put together where previously when you had steel parts every part can be slightly different, which is less of the case with aluminum,” he said. “Therefore, you could work your adjustment between the parts when you rebuild the vehicle… it requires different training and different approaches on how to reassemble a vehicle that is that complex with mixed material approaches.”

A 2022 whitepaper from Ducker noted doubts about the repairability, life cycle, and aging of the castings.

Abraham also discussed Gigacasting during a 2023 Society of Collision Repair Specialists Repairer Driven Education session. Watch the session here.

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Featured image courtesy of Idra Srl, a European die casting company.