Comment on Toyota Will Adopt Tesla-Style Cast Bodies That Might Be Impossible to Fix
arc@lemm.ee 8 months ago
Gigacasting saves car companies money, it doesn’t save car owners money. For the manufacturer it reduces their bill of materials and time take to assemble a vehicle. They might save a couple of hundred bucks. Possibly.
For the owner, it increases the risk that a small collision runs a fracture along the body of their car which is then basically impossible to repair and the entire vehicle is a writeoff. Castings could potentially have sacrificial points where some kinds of damage could be ground off and replaced with stamped metal but even if that were so, it’s still less repairable than if the entire frame of the car were assembled of stamped metal.
jimbolauski@lemmy.world 8 months ago
It’s more than a couple hundred dollars. Production time will drop from 10 to 5 hours per car. The tooling and multiple parts eliminated from large casts will save thousands.
arc@lemm.ee 8 months ago
I doubt it is thousands since most plants are automated, but even assuming it were, it’s the consumer who suffers when their car is basically disposable after a crash.
jimbolauski@lemmy.world 8 months ago
If they were only saving 1% on costs I doubt they’d risk the bad reputation 10% makes it more appetizing.
arc@lemm.ee 8 months ago
Tesla are getting rid of buttons and stalks despite the negative impact it has on usability and safety. All to save what is probably a couple of bucks. E.g. The new model 3 replaces indicator stalks with buttons on the wheel making it all but impossible to safely and legally traverse roundabouts. I reckon there will be huge backlash on this especially in the UK and Europe. So they’ll risk their reputation for much less than you might think.