As production at Giga Texas nears, the factory took delivery of a new Giga Press over the weekend. The unmistakable IDRA box was spotted by drone operator Jeff Roberts, and shared to Twitter by the Tesla Owners Club of Austin.
The new machine is the third Giga Press to be delivered to the factory in recent months. The first 6,000 ton Giga Press arrived in Austin February, followed by another in April. Those machines are already in use as drone flyovers have captured Model Y castings pile up at the factory.
With recent reports suggesting trial production of the Model Y has already begun at the factory, this latest delivery could be IDRAs 8,000 ton Giga Press that will be used to build the upcoming Cybertruck.
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During the most recent Q2 2021 earnings call last month, Tesla’s Vice President of Vehicle Engineering Lars Moravy announced the Cybertruck was “currently in its alpha stages,” and would move into “beta phases” later this year.
Moravy also said the Cybertruck production would only begin after Model Y production was “up and going.”
Giga Press machines are delivered in several containers, so it is difficult to tell if this is the same as the previous ones delivered to the factory, or if it contains the new, more powerful Giga Press.
Earlier this year during the company’s Q4 2020 earnings call, CEO Elon Musk revealed Tesla will be using a larger 8,000 ton diecasting machine to manufacture the Cybertruck’s single-piece rear underbody. The massive machine was then unveiled a few months later by IDRA in a short video, with the company announcing it had officially taken its first order from Tesla.
