Volvo plans switch to Tesla technique to improve next-generation EVs

Volvo Cars will invest 10 billion crowns ($1.1 billion) to prepare its largest and oldest car plant for the electric-car era.

A key part of the transformation will be switching to megacasting for large aluminum body parts.

"This is the biggest technology shift since we switched from wood to steel [for car bodies]," Volvo Solution Architect Vehicle Platform Mikael Fermer told Automotive News Europe.

Volvo's head of engineering and operations, Javier Varela, said the change results in a 75 percent time savings compared with how large aluminum body parts are put together now.

"You avoid the stamping and welding processes and replace them with a megacasting process that is a one-shot injection followed by some tweaks after the injection," Varela told ANE.

Volvo plans to have Torslanda ready for megacasting by 2025, which coincides with the production start for the first full-electric car at the plant, where Volvo currently makes the Volvo XC90 and XC60 SUVs and V90 station wagon.

Tesla is already using megacasting in its production. A key goal at its plant near Berlin is to produce front and rear body parts for the Model Y SUV using single pieces of metal.

Tesla's huge die casting machines can produce two aluminum panels that replace 40 stamped and welded parts. That reduces by 40 percent the number parts that go into a body in white -- and also reduces the number of costly welding robots as well as the floor space needed for them, Jefferies analyst Philippe Houchois told ANE.

Other automakers interested in the process include Mercedes-Benz, which used the one-part casting method to form the rear of the EQXX concept it debuted last month at the CES in Las Vegas, and Chinese automaker Nio.

The Torslanda factory, near Gothenburg, which opened in April 1964, will undergo other changes that include adding a battery assembly plant to integrate battery cells and modules in the floor structure of future EVs.

The production changes are supposed to help extend the range, decrease the charging time and lower the cost of Volvo's next-generation EVs, the automaker said today.

Volvo wants half of its global sales -- an estimated 600,000 units -- to be battery powered by 2025 and to be an electric-only brand by 2030. To make the transition Volvo has announced investments in the last two years totaling more than $4 billion (see chart, below).

Sculptured design

Fermer, who returned to Volvo in 2018 after nearly three years working at Apple as a senior product design engineer, said that using megacasting will let Volvo "sculpture the design tighter around the chassis, powertrain and interior."

This should help improve range, he said, because it is possible to lower the seat, roofline and the complete cross section of the car at the same time.

Casting major parts of the floor structure of the car as one single aluminum part also boost range by reducing weight, Volvo said.

Varela said there are also sustainability benefits from moving to megacasting.

"All the aluminum that you are injecting is used," he said. "You don't have any scrap like you do with stamping."

Fermer said the transition to electric vehicle production is the perfect time switch to megacasting because it should allow Volvo the flexibility to be ready for further changes.

"There will be technology steps on the motors, batteries, whatever, so it's good to have an architecture that is adaptive. That way you can quickly change to a new technique. If you have traditional production set up with all these subassemblies, it's a pain if you want to change something."

To Varela the biggest challenge will be transitioning to megacasting at the same time that traditional production procedures are underway at Torslanda, but he is confident in the team. "We trust the capabilities of our people and their capability to adapt and to be agile," he said.

In addition, Volvo is familar with the process, albeit on a smaller scale, from it purchase of cast components such as spring towers. "We already know how the process works. Now we are going to be doing it on much bigger parts, but the technology is not radically different from a medium part or a small part."

Fermer added that Volvo has "brought in some really senior casting experts" from other automakers. Volvo declined to say where "the handful" of executives worked previously.

Volvo is speaking with "leading machine manufacturers" to help it make the switch to megacasting at Torslanda but no decision has been made, a spokesperson said.

Tesla's die casting machines come from Idra Group, according to Bloomberg.

The closely held Italian company has sold its so-called Giga Press to three customers on three continents and is in talks with other automakers and major suppliers, Bloomberg added.