Toyota uses a 4,000-ton press from Japanese press maker Ube Corp. to verify casting modules, Nakamura said. Toyota is also trying to develop its own in-house gigapresses.
Toyota hasn’t tried to buy its own gigapress, Nakamura said. Global supply of them is extremely tight as automaker interest in the technology takes off. Volvo is also moving to gigapresses, and other producers are considering them.
The 4,000-ton press from Ube is a little smaller than the industry standard, which is around 6,500 tons, Nakamura said. But there is no Japanese supplier of such big presses, he added.
The press used in testing is almost double the size of the biggest one used by Toyota to cast parts. That press, a 2,500-tonner, makes front and rear suspension towers.
The gigapress is cheaper in production preparation and in cost of operation than Toyota’s current method. It is also “overwhelmingly faster,” Nakamura said.
The bZ4X under-rear section can be gigapressed in about 100 seconds, he said. Under the current method, the dozens of processes needed to make the same module can take 30 minutes, although in practice many of those processes happen concurrently.
Gigacasting will be deployed at plants making next-generation EVs from 2026, Nakamura said. Those cars will have essentially three simplified modules: a front, a rear and a middle battery pan. That approach will improve manufacturing efficiency by 20 percent, he forecast — which means that with the same amount of materials and processes, Toyota would be able to make 20 percent more vehicles.
