Tesla announced in its Q3 2022 shareholder deck that it plans to introduce front castings and structural battery packs to the Model Y production lines at Giga Berlin before the end of the year.
We already know the automaker has been testing out this production process over the last few months, but for the first time a Model Y body with both features has been spotted outside the Gigafactory.
Captured in a drone flyover by Tobias Lindh, we can clearly see the single piece front casting on a partially built Model Y. There is also a gaping hole in the floor of the cabin where the structural battery pack will be placed.
You can compare the differences in the front casting with the other Model Ys sitting in this area.
Once the video pans out we can see these Model Y bodies are in the scrap area of the factory, indicating these were more test vehicles as Tesla gets closer to officially beginning production of vehicles with these features.
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Once they do it will greatly simplify Tesla’s production lines as the process eliminates more than 170 separate components that were needed for vehicles currently being built with one a single piece rear casting.
This casting process is not an easy one however. In their shareholder deck Tesla explained just how difficult it is to get it just right.
“Part of the challenge of making such large castings is that all the aluminum needs to be injected into a die in about one-tenth of a blink of an eye, through a single point of entry, without solidifying or distorting.”
Currently only Giga Texas is building cars with this technology, and has been doing so since opening earlier this year.
You can watch the full drone flyover below, which will start when this Model Y appears.
