The Swedes want to become a reference brand in the electrical world and, to do so, they know that they must copy some Tesla concepts, including their way of producing. Whether you like it or not, there is no denying that Tesla has revolutionized the automobile industry. The sector has seen its foundations shaken not only with the arrival of electrification but also with a new production format. The Americans are capable of producing electric vehicles faster than anyone else and their not-so-secret secrets are being copied by many of their rivals. Volvo will be the next to take advantage of Tesla’s ideas to improve the production rate of its electric cars. The Swedes will use the Giga Press in their next creations.
Arriving first is not always a competitive advantage. It is being the first to flood the market that makes the difference. There were already electric cars before Tesla came into the world, but Elon Musk‘s company was the first to massify its production and, incidentally, to offer them at a reasonable price. Both factors go hand in hand. The more units you can produce, the cheaper they are and the cheaper you can sell your products, thus feeding a wheel of success.
Italian presses become the best ally to improve car production
Tesla has had great success rethinking the production system. Henry Ford was the father of the assembly line applied to the automotive sector and Elon Musk can be recognized as the person who evolved assembly. Tesla bases its concept on large castings. Metal printed using the now famous Giga Press that applies thousands of tons of pressure to turn a simple sheet of metal into a recognized piece. With this format, time and resources are saved and, in the process, the torsional capabilities of the vehicles are improved.
There are so many benefits that many companies have already decided to use casting presses in their production chains, Volkswagen and Toyota among them. These large ovens, the size of a house, are not cheap. It is not easy to acquire them either, since few companies are dedicated to them. In Italy, there is the most experienced company in the sector, the same one that works with Tesla and that, from now on, will also supply Volvo. Idra has just announced an agreement with the Swedish company to provide two giant 9,000-tonne presses for its new plant in Kosice, Slovakia.
The European center, built by the Geely Group, will have a production capacity of 250,000 cars per year. Work is already underway, but it will not be until the course of 2026 when assembly operations begin. As reported by Reuters, Hyundai and Ford have also looked at Idra’s presses to improve their production on a global scale. Volvo has not yet confirmed the models that will be manufactured in Slovakia. What is clear is that the plant will manufacture vehicles on the advanced SPA2 platform. The Swedes have confirmed that the Volvo EX30 will also be manufactured in Europe due to the high expected demand.
