Employees of the Tesla Gigafactory Berlin Brandenburg work on a production line of a Model Y electric vehicle.
Tesla has backed away from an ambitious plan for innovations in gigacasting, its pioneering manufacturing process, according to two sources familiar with the matter, in another sign that the electric-vehicle maker is retrenching amid falling sales and rising competition.
Tesla has been a leader in gigacasting, a cutting-edge technique that uses huge presses with thousands of tons of clamping pressure to die-cast large sections of the car's underbody.
One of the two sources familiar with the automaker's gigacasting operations said the suppliers involved are now adapting Tesla's three-piece process for the next-generation vehicle.
Both sources said the automaker decided last autumn to halt work on the more innovative and difficult one-piece casting process.
Persons:
Tesla, Elon Musk
Organizations:
Tesla, Brandenburg, Reuters
Locations:
gigacasting