Dongfeng

Dongfeng Motor officially unveiled more details about its Gigacasting R&D and production center in Wuhan.

It will include 10,000 t and 16,000 t Giga Presses. The plant which started construction in April will be built at one time but have the capacity for 6 die casting production lines which will be installed and ramped up in separate phases.

The first phase consists of two die casting machines with the clamping force of 10,000 and 16,000 t. Previously I reported that the first phase included two 10,000 and the second phase two 16,000. I apologize for the confusion but this latest update is directly from Dongfeng. Previously the sources were speculating about some rumors and announcements from Dongfeng. Sometimes translating from Chinese can be difficult, I apologize.

The two machines will produce rear underbody castings and battery housings. They will reach a combined production capacity of 200,000 units per year.

The Wuhan plant is expected to be completed by June 2025 and achieve mass production in June 2026.

Xiaomi

Xiaomi Produced 100,000 Cars in its First 230 Days, let's go through the history of Xiaomi and the use of “Hypercastings”, which is just like Tesla's Gigacasting.

In March 2021, Xiaomi CEO, Lei Jun announced his intent to enter the electric vehicle market. The same year Xiaomi Automobile was established in the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone.

Lei Jun also met Elon Musk back in 2013 and was inspired by Musk to enter the EV industry. But that's another story which you can read here: https://www.evuniverse.io/p/lei-jun-xiaomi-meets-elon-musk-tesla-2013

In the summer of 2023, Xiaomi was already running trial production of its Hypercasting machines at its Beijing plant which was run by BAIC at the time. The use of Tesla style gigacastings was just a rumor until November 2023, when spy photos emerged on Chinese social media revealing the rear Gigacasting used on a vehicle alleged to be a Xiaomi SU7 prototype.

In December 2023, the Xiaomi SU7 was presented to the world for the first time. The use of two 9,100 t Giga Presses was revealed by Lei Jun himself during the presentation.

According to Lei Jun, Xiaomi has decided to follow the trend started by Tesla in 2020 and therefore implement the Gigacasting process in their first vehicle.

They soon discovered that R&D is significantly more difficult than they initially anticipated. So much so that the original plan was to buy three Giga Presses in case one broke and also invest in a conventional BIW production line which used stamped sheets instead.

In the end they succeeded and were able to reduce complexity and costs. They achieved;

▪︎ minus 72 stamped parts ▪︎ minus 840 welds ▪︎ 17% weight reduction ▪︎ Noise reduction by 2dB ▪︎ >2,000,000 km vehicle longevity.

Xiaomi also developed their own aluminum alloy, called Xiaomi Titans Metal, which offers;

▪︎ Higher casting performance ▪︎ Better mechanical properties ▪︎ Durability and recyclability ▪︎ Better economics.

Xiaomi addressed concerns regarding repairability of its Gigacasting by not integrating the crash cans in its design. Instead they have a 3 stages crumple zone to protect the casting from low speed accidents.

At the SU7 launch in March 2024, Lei Jun invited the CEOs of Nio, Xpeng and Li Auto to attend the event. They sat in the front row and when Xiaomi revealed the price of the car, they showed their reaction live. At $29,900, Xiaomi undercuts all its competitors. In both October and November they delivered more than 20,000 units.

New developments.

In July Xiaomi purchased more than 500,000 sq meters of land west of its factory in Beijing where the SU7 is currently being produced for the production of its future SUV. (Roughly 70% the size of Tesla Giga Shanghai land).

On November 13th, Lei Jun announced that Xiaomi produced 100,000 units of the SU7 in just 230 days. They achieved their production and delivery goal for 2024 in just 7 months.

Haitian is the manufacturer behind Xiaomi's two huge Giga Presses. The two 9,100 t Giga Presses are Haitian's largest die casting machines ever delivered to a customer.

Check out content from Haitian and Xiaomi in the gallery below.

SAIC New Magnesium Thixomolded Motors

On November 29th, the Chinese automotive manufacturer from Shanghai released its 2nd generation magnesium alloy electric motor housing.

This product is the world's first mass produced magnesium alloy electric vehicle motor housing produced with Thixotropic injection molding technology (or Thixomolding).

The total weight of the motor housing is 13.7kg and it's reported to use AZ91D alloy. It weighs 30% less compared to the average aluminum motor housing and achieves a power density of 4.4 kW/kg.

SAIC reported that the thixomolding process greatly improves the strength, elongation and corrosion resistance of magnesium alloy materials, making its large-scale mass production application in the field of new energy vehicles possible.

SAIC used Yizumi's 3,200 t magnesium Thixomolding machine to produce their 2nd generation motor housing parts while previously it used traditional high pressure die casting machines.

According to Yizumi, the 3200T thixomolding machine has an injection pressure of up to 100 MPa, which solves shrinkage compensation in existing thixomolding processes for large parts. “The large flow and high-speed response hydraulic system brings surging filling capacity, 160 mm screw, and the maximum stable discharge volume is >11 kg.”

Compared with the traditional magnesium alloy HPDC process, thixomolding forms a uniform and fine spherical primary phase, improving flowability and the quality of the casting. At the same time, it also significantly improves the mechanical properties, elongation and porosity. This process also doesn’t require the use of protective gas, and the energy consumption of the manufacturing process is greatly reduced.

Quick News

Xpeng

Xpeng announced they delivered 20,000 X9 minivans since the beginning of the year. They are produced using a 12,000 t Giga Press for the Rear UnderBody (RUB) gigacasting. While Xpeng’s latest model, the P7+, which utilizes a 16,000 t Giga Press for the RUB, is already above 10,000 units in under a month since the beginning of deliveries on November 11th.

Both the 12,000 t and 16,000 t machines are operated by Guangdong Hongtu and supplied by LK Machinery. They are the largest and 3rd largest high pressure die casting machines in the world.

Honda

Honda indirectly updated the timeline for their models using Gigacastings.

• Ye models built with the 12,000 t Giga Press in China are expected to be released in the first half of 2025.

• Honda Acura 2026 fully electric vehicle built with 6,000 t Giga Press in Ohio, USA is expected for the end of 2025.

This Week’s Gallery

Tesla Gigafactory Texas update from Joe Tegtmeyer

Haitian

• Xiaomi’s Giga Press video released by Haitian

• HDC8800 Production Line Simulation