(Bloomberg) -- As Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co. and other Japanese carmakers seek to make up for lost ground in the shift to electric vehicles, they’re starting to embrace a disruptive technology that’s become one of the industry’s hottest topics: gigacasting.

Tesla Inc. pioneered the use of huge machines capable of casting entire sections of a chassis in a single step, replacing dozens of parts that were welded together previously. The process helps manufacturers squeeze out savings — in terms of time, equipment, labor and cost — from every EV they assemble.

“Our vision is to reduce the cost of production of full electric cars in such a way that the full electric car can be bought also by normal people,” said Riccardo Ferrario, general manager of Idra Group, the Italian manufacturer that built the first gigapress for Tesla in 2020.

The global market for EV chassis integrated die-casting is projected to be worth $2.6 billion by 2030, from $751 million currently, according to Minsheng Securities.

Toyota’s interest in gigacasting became public knowledge in June, after the world’s biggest carmaker invited analysts and the press to a research facility in the foothills of Mount Fuji, and showed them how it plans to make good on Chief Executive Officer Koji Sato’s promise to roll out 10 new battery EVs and sell 1.5 million annually by 2026.

At the Japan Mobility Show, Sato teased a pair of concept cars that will be part of that forthcoming lineup. Yet few car executives spoke about gigacasting at the event in Tokyo, a sign that it might yet take a while before they upend time-tested production methods. 

During another tour in September of Toyota’s Myochi plant, near its headquarters in Aichi prefecture, the company revealed a gigapress prototype under development. Later that month, Aisin Corp., a major supplier to Toyota, Stellantis NV and Ford Motor Co., announced plans to gigacast an EV by 2026.

Although die-casting has been a common manufacturing process for many years – notably for model cars and other toys – it was mainly used for small automobile parts. While the principles of using a gigapress are similar, they operate on a much different scale.

A high-velocity shot of molten aluminum is injected into a mold that’s pressed together by clamps under tremendous force. Once the part cools down, robots remove it to make way for the next casting. It’s an intricate system helped by heated pipes that carry liquefied metal from a furnace to the mold, a vacuum to eradicate air bubbles, and various machines to trim and test each freshly made component.

Large presses are typically categorized by their clamping force. Tesla’s first gigapress, constructed by Idra, casts parts with 6,100 tons of pressure. Now, Idra is building machines that can handle upwards of 8,000 tons of pressure, which could make even bigger parts. Idra is owned by China’s LK Technology Holdings Ltd., which bought the Italian company in 2008. 

Subaru Corp. also has expressed interest in gigacasting. “As a way to build things simply and to reduce the number of necessary parts, of course we’re looking into gigacasting,” CEO Atsushi Osaki told reporters in September.

Outside Japan, carmakers including Volkswagen AG and Volvo Car AB have said they’re considering or have already decided to use gigapresses.

Although Ryobi Ltd. is known for its power tools, which are now licensed as a brand to a Hong Kong-based manufacturer, its main business is manufacturing die-casting machines for automobiles. The Hiroshima-based company is a major supplier to all of Japan’s carmakers, as well as Ford, General Motors Co. and Hyundai Motor Co.

Ube Machinery Corp. has developed an aluminum press with a clamping force of 6,500 tons. Even Yonetani Die & Mold Co., a small company with less than 100 employees, now has the equipment needed to manufacture the molds used in a gigacast, it said, so that it’s prepared to raise its hand when Japanese carmakers decide to make the leap.

Despite the country’s pedigree in manufacturing – and especially steel stamping – Japanese carmakers have been slow to join other global brands on the gigacasting bandwagon.

Toyota built its reputation upon the concept of kaizen, or continuous improvement. The Toyota Production System, or TPS, underpins its capabilities to manufacture more than 10 million cars a year.

If Toyota’s philosophy is about advancing one step at a time, the gigacast represents a big leap. Casting one piece instead of welding multiple parts together could dramatically reduce the time, floor space, labor and machinery needed to make a vehicle underbody.

Still, these machines are costly and difficult to deliver, and building a facility to house one is a challenge in itself. They require even bigger machines to be manufactured, and peripheral equipment such as large furnaces and cranes become necessary for daily operations, according to Kazuhiko Watanabe of the Japan Die Casting Association.

Transporting them also poses a challenge. Ube Machinery’s version comes in at 7.9 meters tall, 8.4 meters wide and 26.6 meters long. The machines can weigh anywhere from 400 to 600 tons. Although they are shipped in parts and assembled on site, those individual components could still be too difficult to transport via Japan’s roads and bridges, which have strict weight limits.

That’s one reason why Toyota said it’s looking into smaller machines.

Tomoki Shimizu, group manager of the die-casting engineering department in Toyota’s raw material development division, said a gigacast would probably be handled in a similar way to bullet trains, which are often delivered one car at a time in the middle of the night, using roads with the guardrails removed because they’re too narrow.

That, along with safety assessments needed to ensure the streets and bridges along the route are secure, means the whole process of transporting a gigapress could take as long as a year, Shimizu said.

Toyota will initially opt for more compact presses for another reason. In presentations, the carmaker explained that it’s looking at gigacasting to build EVs in three parts: front and rear ends, with a structural battery “skateboard” in the middle. That way, it can build different parts to be used in various configurations, a necessity given the variety of models the carmaker sells around the world.

Still, it’s unlikely Japan has many suppliers willing to invest in this technology, according to Tomokazu Suda, general manager of the raw material development division of Toyota’s engineering planning department.

“Toyota has decided it’s worth trying with EVs,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Takeshi Kitaura said. “For Japanese companies, it’s less about whether they can, and more about whether they should.”

Idra’s Ferrario argued that gigapresses make sense for high-volume manufacturers. Although Japanese carmakers are still “clinging” to hybrid cars, conditions are changing with several having shown strong interest in Idra’s machines, he added.

Idra currently has 25 orders for gigapresses on the books, according to Ferrario. Production of each machine takes 8 to 10 months, and the company is capable of manufacturing three at the same time. At least for Idra, shipping abroad isn’t a major obstacle, he said.

“We can really deliver everywhere in the world,” Ferrario said, pointing out that Idra is preparing to deliver a gigapress with 8,000 tons of clamping force to South Korea. “I wish I could add the Japanese flag as soon as possible.”

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