Tesla gives up on full-body gigacasting for the Robotaxi

Elon Musk's revolution in low-cost car manufacturing that was supposed to be introduced with the Model 2 may have to wait for better times.

Weak sales in the first quarter have forced Elon Musk's hand into war CEO mode, and Tesla began slashing costs anywhere it can to remain competitive in a period of softening demand.

After laying off a number of employees and their projects, including the whole Supercharger team and the mass market Model 2, Tesla has reportedly given up on its one-piece gigacasting fever dream.

This was supposed to be the method that allows it to produce the Model 2 on the cheap. Instead of front and rear gigacastings like on the Cybertruck or the Model Y, Tesla intended to press the whole chassis of its low-cost car in one go.

This would've saved it hundreds of parts and man-hours, yet it would also require big upfront investments in Gigapresses and production line retooling.

Just as Elon Musk said at the quarterly talk with investors, Tesla will use only that part of the next-gen platform that can be executed on its existing production lines. It will still allow it to shave production costs off, but without requiring big capex expenditures in these lean times.

Apparently, Tesla decided to pause its one-piece gigacasting plans as early as last autumn, before the Q1 numbers came in, and before it put the Model 2 project on ice.

Now, Elon Musk said that Tesla will build a Robotaxi on the next-gen platform first, and it will reportedly use the good ol' 3-piece assembly method for the chassis with front and rear gigacastings.

As a result, the Robotaxi should still be the cheapest Tesla vehicle to make, yet without having to scale a novel and unproven manufacturing method to release it in mass quantities.

Tesla will reportedly also use the lesson learned from the production of the Robotaxi to make its upcoming Model Y Juniper facelift cheaper as well.

Get the Tesla Universal Wall Connector EV Charger with Dual Plug on Amazon