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Weekly Gigacasting News 30
19/5/2025 - 25/5/2025. Gigacasting Repairability, Tesla's Approach Unveiled. Nio Updates ES6 and EC6
Luca Greco
May 25, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 11 minutes
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Gigacasting Repairability, The Most Documented Repair Yet
Renowned YouTuber JerryRigEverything documented the Tesla Gigacasting repair process for his Cybertruck after its tow hitch failed during a tongue weight durability test. In the test, an excavator applied downward force to the hitch, causing it to snap at 10 times the rated static tongue weight capacity.
I want to commend JerryRigEverything for his outstanding work in detailing the repair procedures, educating the public and providing valuable insights. Without further ado, let’s dive into the repair process.
The Gigacasting features molded guide lines that allow technicians to cut and replace specific sections without removing critical components like the drive motor or battery. This modular approach minimizes downtime and keeps repair bills in check.
For rear-end collisions, this means only the damaged portion needs to be addressed, saving significant time and labor costs. | For side impacts, a central guide line enables the casting to be split in half. Technicians can replace just one side of the casting. |
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The molded guide lines serve as reference points for cutting, but they’re not rigid requirements. 3 millimeters of tolerance, provide technicians with flexibility when aligning and attaching replacement parts. This small buffer makes the repair process more forgiving, ensuring a precise fit without excessive complexity.
Once the damaged section is cut away, the repair process is straightforward. Technicians use a portable belt sander with coarse sandpaper to smooth the cut edges, preparing the surface for the new part. A specially designed rail section, tailored for these repairs, is then installed. This replacement piece snaps into place with minimal effort.
To bond the replacement parts, technicians use a high strength structural adhesive, a crash durable epoxy that rivals traditional welding. Applied evenly across the Gigacasting and the new part, this adhesive boasts a tensile strength exceeding 3,000 pounds per square inch.
Unlike spot welds or rivets, which connect at discrete points, the adhesive covers a larger surface area, often resulting in a stronger bond.
Rivets play a supporting role, holding the parts in place while the two-part epoxy cures. The adhesive remains workable for about 90 minutes before it begins to set, reaching full strength within 24 hours.
The adhesive contains microscopic, non-compressible glass beads. These tiny beads prevent technicians from over-clamping and squeezing out too much glue, ensuring a consistent bond thickness and a near-foolproof process.
After bonding the replacement rail section, the adhesive is left to cure for 24 hours. Technicians then install components like the receiver hitch, which bolts directly to the Gigacasting and integrates with the bumper’s energy absorbers.
Not every collision requires cutting into the Gigacasting. For minor fender benders, the vehicle’s rear structure includes a bolted-on aluminum energy absorber. Designed with ripples to dissipate impact energy, this component is part of the rear crumple zone and can be replaced easily.
For small impacts, swapping out this piece is often enough to get the vehicle back on the road. In cases of more severe damage, technicians can section the Gigacasting as described, ensuring flexibility for a range of repair scenarios.
The repair was completed in under a week at the cost of $13,994, including Utah state tax. Note the price included the cost of repairing and replacing parts of the 48V system.
One of the most important aspects of this repair system is its transparency. Tesla provides detailed repair guides publicly on their website, making the process accessible to technicians and repair shops, any owner can buy replacement parts online.
Tesla Cybertruck’s Lead Engineer, Wes Morrill also made a comment about this video:
Zack's repair was a perfect demonstration of the work the team put in hand in hand with service to consider repairability in the design.
Crashes happen and lowering the cost of repair lowers the cost of insurance, and improves overall cost of ownership. Couple that with low maintenance costs and low $/mi and it's really hard to make an argument to buy anything else.
I'm also really happy to see the highlight on documentation and transparency of Tesla service.
There is so much information both on Tesla's website as well as on the vehicle's UI to empower customers to learn about their vehicle and even repair it themselves if they want.
Tesla has always had the ethos of open patents to accelerate EV technology instead of building a moat and the service team is equally trailblazing the right to repair movement building comprehensive documentation and free tools to make new tech more approachable.
He also addressed why there is such a big difference in amount of structural adhesive applied between the production version and the repair process:
Production also has multiple spot welds which are not present on the repair, plus in production the adhesive is dispensed by robots so it's consistent to the mL.
In a field repair we need to be conservative since there are no giant robot arms ensuring consistency.
Nio Updates ES6 and EC6
NIO unveiled the refreshed ES6 and EC6, both now incorporating Gigacastings
The ES6 and EC6 are the first NIO vehicles to feature both Rear UnderBody (RUB) Gigacastings and inner side panels for the C and D pillars.
This combination significantly enhances torsional stiffness and safety, particularly in rear end collisions with vehicles of substantially greater mass, such as semi trucks.
The RUB design avoids large flat surfaces, such as wheel arches, by welding high strength steel stamped panels to the castings, which are a lot thinner.
This achieves a 30% weight reduction, though it requires additional manufacturing steps.
NIO has previously integrated Gigacastings into its vehicles. The ET5 and ES8, initially launched without Gigacastings, adopted them in later refreshes.
The ET9, NIO’s only vehicle designed with Gigacastings from the outset, began deliveries earlier this year.
*Note: The NIO ES8 and ES6 are marketed as EL8 and EL6 in Europe.
Nio ES6 with RUB and inner side panels
Inside Volvo’s Megacasting at Torslanda
Vigel Spa, an Italian machining manufacturer, released a video showcasing its equipment in action at Volvo’s Torslanda plant in Sweden.
The footage shows the machining simulation of a Volvo rear underbody Megacasting.
The Torslanda facility is undergoing a $1 billion (10 billion SEK) transformation to establish dedicated battery electric vehicle (BEV) production lines.
This extensive renovation includes a revamped paint shop, a new battery assembly facility, and a shift from traditional stamped rear underbodies to advanced single piece Megacastings.
To enable this, Volvo has deployed two 8,500 ton die casting machines from Bühler. Production is slated to begin by the end of 2025 and rumors say that the first vehicle to adopt this technology will be the fully electric EX60 suv.
Our Torslanda plant is introducing Megacasting, another example of a strategic investment we have made into our future.
With mega casting, large aluminium casted parts replace in some cases, more than 100 smaller parts.
By using fewer parts we can lower our costs, reduce manufacturing complexity, improve sustainability across our supply chain and create lighter cars.
Landed cost for a Megacast structure is up to 35% below a mixed steel-aluminium structure.
Time from raw material to ready product is reduced from months to days.
And the upstream value chain is replaced by raw material input directly to our plants, which gives us greater control over the costs.
This rollout at Torslanda provides a great base for scaling - both for other Megacasted parts and for how we use Megacasting in our other plants around the globe.
We will add mega casting capabilities to our new Kosice plant in Slovakia and in the Daqing plant in China.
Bühler Carat 840 at Torslanda in 2023
The New Xiaomi YU7
Lei Jun, CEO of Xiaomi, unveiled the YU7, the company’s second vehicle and a direct competitor to China’s top selling Tesla Model Y. During the reveal, Xiaomi openly showcased an in depth comparison between the two SUVs, highlighting their rivalry.
The YU7 is built on the same Modena platform as Xiaomi’s SU7 and features a rear underbody (RUB) Gigacasting, just like the Model Y, manufactured in house using Xiaomi’s proprietary Titan aluminum alloy. This technology, also used in the SU7, delivers significant benefits, including:
Elimination of 72 stamped parts and 840 welds, 17% weight reduction, 2 dB noise reduction and vehicle life exceeding 2,000,000 km. But most importantly, the single piece RUB casting helps the vehicle delivering exceptional structural strength and withstanding rear collisions at speeds of up to 90 km/h.
Left: 20 in 1 triangular beam. Right: RUB
To support YU7 production, Xiaomi acquired over 500,000 square meters of land west of its Beijing factory, where the SU7 is manufactured. The expansion includes new 9,100 ton die casting machines from Haitian to produce more RUBs.
About Xiaomi EVs
Remarkably, in its first nine months of vehicle production, Xiaomi delivered over 130,000 SU7 units to customers. For the current year, the company has set an ambitious target of producing and delivering more than 300,000 vehicles, including both the SU7 and new YU7.
This Week’s Gallery
New video of Tesla’s aluminum recycling operation (click image)
TRIMMED Tesla Cybercab RUB castings
Tederic’s aluminum-plastic die casting and injection molding machine
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