In the relatively young yet burgeoning and hyper-competitive world of all-electric vehicles, Ford – along with essentially every other automaker – is working to make its EVs profitable, which isn’t expected to happen until 2026. In the meantime, Ford’s EV-focused Model e unit is expected to lose around $3 billion this year, all while CEO Jim Farley admits that the prices of those vehicles remain far too high for consumers’ taste. In recent months, the automaker has hired a variety of talent from the likes of Tesla and Apple as it works to right that proverbial ship, and now, The Blue Oval has taken another page from Tesla’s playbook after acquiring the same type of giga press machine that the EV-only automaker is currently using, according to Reuters.
These new giga press machines come from an Italian company called IDRA, and are used to create massive pieces of a vehicle’s underbody, which helps save time and cuts down on the costs associated with manufacturing. Tesla was the first automaker to begin utilizing this gigantic press recently, which creates front and rear underbodies, which can then be combined with a battery pack to form a three-piece chassis of sorts.
A giga press 6,100 – which has over 6,000 tons of clamping force – was spotted at IDRA’s plant in Travalgiato with Ford’s logo printed on it, though for now, that unit is being tested before it’s shipped to the automaker. Nearby, a larger, giga press 9,000 was also undergoing testing, but that unit didn’t have any company logo present on it, though sources indicate that it was purchased by Hyundai.
As of now, Tesla utilizes 14 giga presses at its production plants, out of the 25 total that IDRA has shipped thus far. However, it seems as if both Ford and Hyundai will only be using these massive machines for research and development at this time, though it obviously remains possible that both may very well be relying on a giga press to build EVs at some point in the future.
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Comments
Yay. Now Ford can make unrepairable vehicles just like Tesla and Yotota. And recall them all for “stress cracks” because Ford won’t let it linger like Tesla does.
Happens all the time in the industry with relatively young technology. When BMW started bonding aluminum sub-structures to steel bodies the vehicles were initially totaled out for minor wrecks because there wasn’t a cost-effective and well understood means to repair them. Eventually the industry figured it out and moved on. It was the same with all-aluminum vehicles. It was cheaper to toss them than repair them because it required comparatively specialized procedures by a few highly trained people but eventually that went away was procedures were developed and people trained.
Tesla lost money on every car it built for years. What allowed them to not go belly up is our government has in place a system of ‘clean air credits’. Yes the usual lawer BS (all politicians) since every vehicle Tesla sold was an EV with 0% emmisions it ecumulated enormous amounts of ‘clean air credits’ which the government ALOWS A COMPANY TO SELL TO OTHER COMPANIES!.
GM, Ford, Stalantis will be using their own clean air credits, so unlike Tesla, they will not be a source of income.
Hopefully they don’t need more bailout money
@Michael J Genzale
You know that’s simply not true. According to actual analyst’s, Tesla has only started to lose money to their NEWER vehicles from substantially lowering the price. Tesla used to not make a lot of money off their vehicles but since the introduction of the mass market Model 3 & Model Y they’ve been flourishing. How about you discuss how Ford’s move to electrification is cannibalizing their own vehicles.