According to a report from CITIC Securities, “one-piece die-casting” is expected to reduce the manufacturing cost of aluminum car bodies by 70%, and will drive industry changes in car body manufacturing processes. Traditional car body manufacturing uses sheet metal stamping + welding processes. Tesla took the lead in Model Y to use aluminum alloy die-casting to die-cast the rear structural parts of the car body. It plans to use the integrated die-casting process in the full body manufacturing of the next-generation models. According to our calculations, the use of the integrated die-casting process can theoretically reduce the total cost of the all-aluminum car body by about 70% compared with the traditional stamping + welding process, and by about 50% compared with the steel-aluminum hybrid car body, which is close to the cost of the steel welded car body. At the same time, the integrated die-casting process has many advantages such as reducing the number of body parts, simplifying the supply chain, reducing vehicle weight, reducing battery costs, high raw material utilization, and reducing factory floor space. It is the general trend of future industry development.
After Tesla successfully adopted one-piece die-casting for mass production of ModelY rear axle body structures, other automakers at home and abroad also began to follow up quickly. At present, many foreign auto companies have begun to research and develop integrated die-casting structural parts on some models. Among them, the new forces of domestic companies are the most active. NIO cooperates with die-casting parts companies such as Wencan and Ruili, and plans to adopt integrated die-casting structural parts for next-generation models. In the future, domestic companies and car companies are expected to follow up quickly. At present, the direction of integrated die-casting technology has become the consensus of the automotive industry. It is expected that in addition to Tesla, other automakers are expected to purchase a large number of die-casting machines from 2023, and the industry is expected to achieve sustained high growth.
The integrated die-casting revolution is expected to drive the explosive growth of die-casting equipment in the next ten years, which will benefit core equipment manufacturers. It is estimated that it will take 10-15 years for the penetration rate of integrated die-casting car body to increase to 90%. It is assumed that by 2030, the penetration rate of integrated die-casting in the field of new energy vehicles will reach 70%, and the penetration rate in the field of fuel vehicles will reach 20%. At the same time, the large-scale die-casting machine will bring new demands in multiple fields, and the scope of application can be expanded. The integrated die-casting process has the potential to extend to multiple fields.