Disruptive innovation is something that has existed in every industry, all around the world for centuries. Every time someone experiments with a new idea, and that concept earns the attention and respect of an audience, a “disruptive brand” is born. Look at what Apple did with mobile phones, Uber did to the taxi industry, Netflix did with home entertainment. These 3 companies took on well established brands in their relevant marketplace to become market leaders and now, are we seeing this with Tesla?
Key Points
Tesla has developed a mega-casting machine to manufacture giant alloy single body pieces for the rear and front of the electric SUV.
Each piece from start to finish takes 1-2 minutes which equals about 1,000 castings a day per machine.
The casting machines will save 370 components glued together.
This is state to reduce around 600 robots on the assembly line
The casings will reduce the vehicle mass weight and improve product quality.
So when Tesla launched its first EV back in 2008, no one in the established automotive industry world took them seriously and believed it would be just another high end niche low volume brand. Fast forward a few more years than a decade and despite being younger than most of its competitors, Tesla is now the hunted, as it’s had a significant impact on the auto industry.
The growth of Tesla comes from a number of areas, one of which is, they always put a huge emphasis on product development and technological advancement. It has whole teams dedicated to R&D and invests regularly to ensure it’s at the top of its game.
CEO Elon Musk has been hyping the new Model Y to be built at Austin and Berlin factories as “a revolution in auto body engineering.” He was referring to Tesla using mega-casting parts to have giant single body pieces for the rear and front of the electric SUV. Using two large single castings to produce the crossover's body, which appears to be an industry first.
Over the last few years, the automaker has been heavily investing in casting and alloy technology to enable larger casted parts that have the capacity to greatly simplify manufacturing. The company even acquired several units of the biggest casting machines in the world. The mega casting machine forces a molten metal alloy into a reusable mold (a special metal alloy that is said to have been developed by their space X team ). Each fresh piece from start to finish takes 1-2 minutes and equals about 1,000 castings a day per machine.
Elon Musk has stated that its casting machines will save 370 components glued together to form the same singular piece of a car. Not only that, but this has also streamlined production. “There are roughly a thousand robots on a body line,” Musk explained in a video interview on the Munro Live YouTube channel. This latest development will reduce the number of robots on the assembly line by around 600, provide better NVH, reduce body weight, increase range, make manufacturing simpler by reducing the number of stamping & welding, savings from eliminating tooling/maintenance costs, vertical integration, improve the supply chain control, and enhance quality.
Tesla may be a carmaker, but it’s also a software and battery developer, a solar tech company, and so on. If one label was to define Tesla, then that label should be “technology.” Tesla is developing like no other automaker, and it’s showing no signs of slowing down, which has to make traditional manufacturers, very worried.
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