Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Automotive News
  • Automobilwoche
  • Automotive News Canada
  • Automotive News China
Subscribe
  • Subscribe
  • Newsletters
  • Login
  • HOME
    • Latest news
    • Automakers
    • Suppliers
    • New Product
    • Environment/Emissions
    • Sales By Market
    • On The Move
    • Auto Shows
    • Munich Auto Show
    • Geneva Auto Show
    • Paris Auto Show
    • Beijing Auto Show
    • Shanghai Auto Show
  • Features
    • Long Read
    • Interview of the Month
    • Focus on Electrification
    • Focus on Technology
    • Segment Analysis
    • Cars & Concepts
    • Supplier Spotlight
    • Europe By The Numbers
  • Opinion
    • Blogs
    • Commentary
    • Guest columnists
  • Photos
    • Photo Galleries
    • Geneva Photo Gallery
    • Beijing Photo Gallery
    • Frankfurt Photo Gallery
    • Paris Photo Gallery
    • Shanghai Photo Gallery
  • Podcasts
  • Car Cutaways
  • EVENTS
    • ANE Congress
    • ANE Rising Stars
    • ANE Eurostars
  • More
    • Publishing Partners
    • Social Media
    • Contact Us
    • Media Kit
    • About Us
    • Capgemini: Invent Head on automotive takeaways from CES 2023
    • Capgemini: Securing the industry's future through a radical rethink
    • Capgemini: Succeeding with the automated driving journey through AI
    • Capgemini: The circular economy is spurring new thinking on EV batteries
    • Capgemini: Toyota and Capgemini leaders on how OEMs can handle industry changes and succeed
    • HEXAGON: Plugging into data is the only way to make winning EVs
    • TUV Rheinland: Ideas, services and certifications for smart mobility
    • TUV Rheinland: Testing of automated and autonomous vehicles on test tracks
    • Toyota Europe
    • UFI Filters
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. Automakers
March 31, 2022 05:29 AM

Giga casting and robots: How VW's Trinity project aims to catch up with Tesla

VW's aims to catch up with Tesla’s fast production times by using giga casting.

Reuters
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Print
    VW ID3 production Zwickau

    VW currently needs up to 3 times as much time to build its cars as Tesla.

    BERLIN -- As Tesla begins production at its German plant this month, rival Volkswagen is weeks away from finalizing plans for a 2-billion-euro ($2.2 billion) electric-vehicle factory that it hopes will bring it up to speed with its U.S. rival.

    Tesla says it can already produce a Model Y SUV in 10 hours at its new factory in Gruenheide near Berlin, whereas it can take VW three times as long to make its ID3 full-electric hatchback.

    VW now aims to slash production times at its new Trinity plant by using techniques such as large die casting and cutting the number of components in its cars by several hundred.

    The factory should be up and running in VW's home city of Wolfsburg in 2026. It will build a full-electric sedan for the VW brand with advanced self-driving capabilties.

    "Our goal is clear: we want to set the standard with our production," VW brand production chief Christian Vollmer told Reuters in an interview. "If we can get to 10 hours, we have achieved something big."

    Related Article
    VW picks Wolfsburg for $2.2B EV plant to keep up with Tesla
    An Italian supplier's Giga Press is changing car manufacturing

    The automaker has been improving productivity at a rate of about 5 percent a year but must take bigger leaps to keep its upper hand in the European market, Vollmer said, without providing a new percentage target.

    VW -- with its stable of brands from Skoda, Seat and VW to Audi, Porsche and Bentley -- has a 25 percent share of the European EV market, ahead of Tesla on 13 percent.

    But the pressure on German automakers to both master and ramp up EV production has been intensified by Tesla's presence in the country and VW Group CEO Herbert Diess has warned Germans must speed up to avoid getting beaten on their own turf.

    Giga presses

    VW's goals align with a wider trend in the industry of simplifying product ranges and streamlining production as automakers scramble to find the cash to fund the electric transition - and keep up with rivals like Tesla that do not have to juggle making EVs as well as cars with combustion engines.

    "Tesla really ignited the drive for reducing part counts and making simpler products," Evan Horetsky, a partner at McKinsey who was formerly in charge of engineering at Tesla's new Brandenburg plant, said. "Legacy manufacturers have a more difficult time because they have to maintain current orders."

    A Tesla spokesperson said one of the reasons it can produce its Model Y vehicles in Germany within a 10-hour time frame is because it is uses two giant casting presses, or giga presses, applying 6,000 tons of pressure to make the rear of the car.

    Tesla's Gruenheide press shop can produce 17 components in under six minutes. With six more giga presses on the way, Tesla will soon be making the front of the car with the giga press too.

    "That is why we are so fast," the spokesperson said.

    The giga casting technique that VW plans to adopt was popularized by Tesla as an alternative to the more labor-intensive method of assembling multiple stamped metal panels with crumple zones to absorb energy during a crash.

    BMW has rejected large castings in the past on the grounds that the higher costs of repair outweigh the lower manufacturing costs.

    But advocates say automated driving technology will reduce the frequency of accidents: "Tesla is designing a vehicle that most likely will not be in a severe crash," Cory Steuben, president of manufacturing consulting firm Munro & Associates, said.

    Idra, the Italian company that produces giga presses, has declined to say whether it is working with Tesla, despite industry insiders confirming that the automaker's German plant uses their products to create the front and rear underbody platform for the Model Y.

    In a recent interview with Automotive News Europe, Idra CEO Riccardo Ferrario said that VW and Volvo were the automakers that are closest to deciding on whether to move to megacasting for their future vehicles.

    VW's 'human-robot cooperation'

    While VW can produce certain models such as the Tiguan or Polo in 18 and 14 hours in Germany and Spain respectively, its ID3, made in Zwickau, a factory juggling six models from three VW brands, still takes 30 hours to put together.

    At the Trinity plant, multiple work steps will be condensed into one through automation, shrinking the size of the body shop and reducing the number of jobs requiring uncomfortable physical labor, Vollmer said, calling it an expansion of "human-robot cooperation."

    VW does not plan to have giga presses at the new Trinity plant in Wolfsburg and will instead use the equipment at its factory in Kassel about 160 km (100 miles) away and transport the products by train.

    U.S. investment bank JPMorgan predicts that Tesla's Gruenheide factory will produce about 54,000 cars in 2022, 280,000 in 2023 and then 500,000 by 2025.

    VW, which delivered about 452,000 battery-electric vehicles globally last year, has not yet set an output target for Trinity, which will use its Scalable Systems Platform.

    Related Article
    VW pushes ahead with 'super platform' for self-driving electric cars

    It aims to build 40 million vehicles worldwide on the new platform - which combines multiple internal combustion engine and electric platforms into one – with half of its global output all-electric by 2030.

    Tesla, which produced 936,000 cars last year, has said it aims to put 20 million on the road a year by the end of the decade, or roughly double the current annual production of Toyota.

    Still, Tesla can expect numerous challenges as it expands in Germany, from securing more water supplies to environmental groups angry about light pollution and congestion near the plant to unions worried about a management-heavy works council and wages being driven down by workers coming in from elsewhere.

    "Starting production is nice, but volume production is the hard part," Musk told a cheering audience at a festival at the plant site in October 2021. "It will take longer to reach volume production than it took to build the factory."

    DAILY NEWSLETTER: Sign up and get the top news of the day in Europe every business weekday.
    RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
    Renault cedes power at Nissan for uncertain benefits
    Recommended for You
    Renault Nissan logos 2023
    Renault cedes power at Nissan for uncertain benefits
    BYD Han sedan
    BYD expects 2022 profit surge as sales jump
    Arrival has built test models and is due to launch production in 2022.r.
    EV startup Arrival slashes workforce; names new CEO
    Capgemini Invent Head on automotive takeaways from CES 2023
    Sponsored Content: Capgemini Invent Head on automotive takeaways from CES 2023
    Sign up for free newsletters
    EMAIL ADDRESS

    Please enter a valid email address.

    Please enter your email address.

    Please verify captcha.

    Please select at least one newsletter to subscribe.

    You can unsubscribe at any time through links in these emails. For more information, see our Privacy Policy.

    Get Free Newsletters

    Sign up and get the best of Automotive News Europe delivered straight to your email inbox, free of charge. Choose your news – we will deliver.

    You can unsubscribe at any time through links in these emails. For more information, see our Privacy Policy.

    SUBSCRIBE TODAY

    Get 24/7 access to in-depth, authoritative coverage of the auto industry from a global team of reporters and editors covering the news that’s vital to your business.

    SUBSCRIBE NOW
    Connect with Us
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Instagram

    Founded in 1996, Automotive News Europe is the preferred information source for decision-makers and opinion leaders operating in Europe.

    Contact Us

    1155 Gratiot Avenue
    Detroit MI  48207-2997
    Tel: +1 877-812-1584

    Email Us

    ISSN 2643-6590 (print)
    ISSN 2643-6604 (online)

     

    Resources
    • About us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise with us
    • Advertise with Us
    • Ad Choices Ad Choices
    • Sitemap
    Awards
    • Rising Stars
    • Eurostars
    • Leading Women
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Automotive News Europe
    Copyright © 1996-2023. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • HOME
      • Latest news
      • Automakers
      • Suppliers
      • New Product
      • Environment/Emissions
      • Sales By Market
      • On The Move
      • Auto Shows
        • Munich Auto Show
        • Geneva Auto Show
        • Paris Auto Show
        • Beijing Auto Show
        • Shanghai Auto Show
    • Features
      • Long Read
      • Interview of the Month
      • Focus on Electrification
      • Focus on Technology
      • Segment Analysis
      • Cars & Concepts
      • Supplier Spotlight
      • Europe By The Numbers
    • Opinion
      • Blogs
      • Commentary
      • Guest columnists
    • Photos
      • Photo Galleries
      • Geneva Photo Gallery
      • Beijing Photo Gallery
      • Frankfurt Photo Gallery
      • Paris Photo Gallery
      • Shanghai Photo Gallery
    • Podcasts
    • Car Cutaways
    • EVENTS
      • ANE Congress
      • ANE Rising Stars
      • ANE Eurostars
    • More
      • Publishing Partners
        • Capgemini: Invent Head on automotive takeaways from CES 2023
        • Capgemini: Securing the industry's future through a radical rethink
        • Capgemini: Succeeding with the automated driving journey through AI
        • Capgemini: The circular economy is spurring new thinking on EV batteries
        • Capgemini: Toyota and Capgemini leaders on how OEMs can handle industry changes and succeed
        • HEXAGON: Plugging into data is the only way to make winning EVs
        • TUV Rheinland: Ideas, services and certifications for smart mobility
        • TUV Rheinland: Testing of automated and autonomous vehicles on test tracks
        • Toyota Europe
        • UFI Filters
      • Social Media
        • Facebook
        • Instagram
        • LinkedIn
        • Twitter
      • Contact Us
      • Media Kit
      • About Us