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Tesla’s Cybertruck continues to disrupt conventional automotive design norms—especially when it comes to body structure and casting strategy. In a revealing conversation with Tesla’s Head of Vehicle Engineering, Lars Moravy, key insights emerged about how the electric vehicle giant is rethinking everything from hot-stamped door rings to integrated crash zones. We examine the groundbreaking elements of Cybertruck’s exoskeleton and casting processes. And we highlight how Tesla’s approach reflects deep integration between vehicle design, simulation, manufacturing, and structural optimization.
Rethinking Automotive Body Structure with an Exoskeleton
The Cybertruck’s now-iconic exoskeleton isn’t just for show. This radical design features a high-strength boron steel door ring—Tesla engineered it as the largest hot-stamped door ring in the industry. Unlike traditional vehicles that place a cosmetic “skin” over structural members, Tesla integrates the structural surface directly into the vehicle’s aesthetic. The door ring itself, a tailor-welded blank formed in-house, carries structural loads without needing an outer skin.
Powder-coated for appearance rather than protection, the single-piece inner and outer panels are spot welded, showcasing Tesla’s emphasis on simplification and strength. Located at the south end of Giga Texas, Tesla even engineered its own press systems to handle these massive components, using Schuler and AP&T stamping machines tailored for high-tonnage reliability.
How Tesla Scales Complexity with Gigacasting
Tesla’s casting strategy is perhaps its most disruptive innovation. Where traditional automakers rely on hundreds of stamped and welded parts, Tesla’s gigacastings consolidate these into large single pieces—front and rear. The front casting is made on a 6,500-ton press (reduced from an initially estimated 8,000-ton need through simulation refinements), while the rear demands a 9,000-ton monster of a machine.
Here’s where Tesla’s in-house synergy shows its value: die designers sit side by side with casting engineers, running iterative simulations to optimize metal flow and reduce press tonnage. As Lars Moravy explained, “liquid metal wants to move like a river.” Tesla follows this natural flow pattern, avoiding the truss-like shapes some competitors mistakenly emulate from theory rather than real-world flow modeling.
By designing both part and die concurrently, Tesla avoids the inefficiencies found in more traditional tooling environments—allowing for faster cycle times, reduced warping, and superior part integrity.
Insert Design and Die Maintenance
Gigacast tooling isn’t just about size—it’s about longevity and serviceability. Tesla’s approach to die maintenance centers on modularity: inserts are placed in high-heat zones and coated with durable materials like nickeloid to resist corrosion and wear. Tesla’s in-house die shop regularly replaces these inserts, maintaining continuous uptime and ensuring faster turnaround when molds degrade.
The main die platens themselves last hundreds of thousands of shots, while the modular inserts can be swapped out every few months to maintain fidelity. This self-sufficient approach provides Tesla with unmatched agility in die lifecycle management and helps prevent catastrophic downtime.
Tapered Self-Tapping Inserts: Another Simplification Step
One particularly clever design tweak Tesla employed in the Cybertruck is the use of tapered self-tapping inserts. Rather than machining holes into castings, Tesla designs the castings with tapered holes that allow inserts to be twisted in and self-seated. This not only reduces machining steps but also strengthens threaded regions and ensures tight, repeatable fits with minimal tooling.
For larger inserts, external threading ensures high torque retention. Smaller inserts use internal designs, making the entire system robust, easy to assemble, and repeatable.
Crashworthiness Built into the Structure
Another major departure from legacy automotive architecture is the integration of crash zones directly into the castings. Traditionally, vehicles use “crush cans” that bolt on or attach near the bumper. Tesla builds this functionality directly into the aluminum extrusion that forms the Cybertruck’s front bumper—and into the casting itself.
This “progressive crash mode” features a sequence of differently sized fins and ribs from front to rear, ensuring energy is absorbed in stages. Smaller, thinner sections break first, followed by stronger, larger ribs—managing crash energy predictably and safely.
The rear casting supports immense loads, including:
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305 kN rear impact absorption (roughly equivalent to a 50 mph rear-end crash)
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2,500 pounds of bed payload
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11,000 pounds of towing force
All this force is channeled through nodes tied into the battery and chassis structure, achieving stiffness and energy absorption with the same elegant solution.
Homogenous Strength and Ductility
One concern often raised with large aluminum castings is brittleness. Tesla, however, has chosen alloys that balance strength with ductility. In testing (including impacts with 18-pound sledgehammers), Cybertruck’s castings show remarkable resilience—resisting deformation better than welded sheet metal structures. The casting flexes rather than fractures, lending additional safety in both crash and heavy-duty scenarios.
Where conventional structures rely on layers of stamped and welded parts, Tesla’s unified approach results in:
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Fewer welds
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Stronger joints
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Better alignment
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Lower cost in the long term
Press Fleet Optimization and Tool Swapping
Production efficiency is another key to Tesla’s Cybertruck strategy. Tesla operates one front casting press and two rear presses, but maintains the flexibility to swap dies with presses used for the Model Y—of which they have four. This flexibility enables Tesla to:
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Maintain two active dies and one backup at all times
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Perform proactive maintenance without slowing output
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Easily rotate dies for rework, cleaning, or upgrades
This kind of die swap agility—standard in high-volume manufacturing—is elevated by Tesla’s vertical integration and in-house die shop.
A Philosophy of Functional Elegance
What emerges from this interview is a clear philosophy: simplify, integrate, and iterate. Rather than accepting limitations imposed by off-the-shelf press tooling or traditional OEM body architecture, Tesla reshapes both the process and the part. The Cybertruck embodies that philosophy—whether in the form of a powder-coated, skinless door ring or a 9,000-ton rear casting with integrated crash zones and tow anchors.
Every design decision—from aluminum alloy choice to the use of tapered inserts—reflects the company’s larger goal: build stronger, cheaper, more manufacturable vehicles with fewer parts and better performance.
Explore More: Cybertruck and Beyond
At Munro & Associates, we specialize in uncovering the design thinking and manufacturing genius behind the world’s most innovative vehicles. If this teardown of Cybertruck’s casting strategy sparked your curiosity, there’s much more to learn.
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