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The Year of the ‘Giga Press’: How Tesla’s monster machines can complete Elon Musk’s 2nd Master Plan
One of the most exciting developments from Tesla eagerly awaited by the electric car community is the company’s use of its giant casting machines. Dubbed by its maker IDRA as the “Giga Press,” the house-sized monster machines are capable of producing single-cast pieces for Tesla’s vehicles, starting with the Model Y.
The Giga Press lives up to its name. Its physical footprint is formidable, measuring 20 meters x 7.5 meters x 6 meters. It also weighs a whopping 430 tons, or about five Space Shuttles. So massive is the Giga Press that it takes up to 24 flatbed trucks to transport its components.
When operating, the Giga Presses are no slouch, as they have a cycle time of ~80‒90 seconds, which translates to an output rate of 40‒45 completed castings per hour, or about ~1,000 castings per day. That’s over 300,000 castings per year, per machine.
A Platoon of Giga Presses
So far, Tesla has set up two Giga Presses on the grounds of the Fremont Factory. Flyovers of the site show that the two machines are already set up, though it remains to be seen when they would formally be deployed. Over in China, three other Giga Presses have been spotted in the Giga Shanghai complex, though the units were reportedly built by LK Machinery, IDRA’s parent company.
But what is rather remarkable is that Tesla has several more Giga Presses in order. Sandy Munro, in a recent interview with electric vehicle advocate Sean Mitchell, noted that he has heard through the grapevine that Tesla has ordered 11 more units of the Giga Presses. Previous reports point to Giga Berlin receiving eight of the machines, and flyovers at the Giga Texas site seem to reveal three isolation pits for the monster machines in the area.
Needless to say, the Giga Press is poised to become a key part of Tesla’s Gigafactories from now on. As Tesla rolls out its single-piece cast design for the vehicles in its lineup, the company’s platoon of Giga Press machines will likely play an even bigger role. This role will likely become prominent starting next year, 2021.
The Year of the Giga Press
Tesla has always been a rebel of sorts, and this became extremely prominent this year. 2020 will likely be known as the year when the world stopped, and automakers suffered deep wounds due to the pandemic. Tesla, being a company that has always swum against the current, thrived instead of dropped. It is even poised to end the year as the newest member of the S&P 500.
But 2020 is only the beginning of a new chapter in the Tesla story. With the company now on more stable footing, the electric car maker can focus on executing its ramp for 2021. This ramp would likely involve Tesla aiming to produce close to, or perhaps up to, a million vehicles in one year. Such a ramp would require the full deployment of its Giga Press machines.
There is little doubt that Giga Press No.1 and No.2 at the Fremont Factory will be deployed fully soon. Giga Press No.3, No.4, and No.5 at Gigafactory Shanghai will likely be operational in early 2021 as well. And with Gigafactory Berlin likely starting Model Y production sometime next year, there is a good chance that several of its Giga Presses would go live next year as well. These, as well as the speculated machines in the Cybertruck Gigafactory in Texas, should allow Tesla to turn 2021 into the year of the Giga Press.
A Multi-Segment Approach
Tesla is a company with a big goal, one which focuses on the Master Plan of its CEO. So far, Tesla has pretty much completed Elon Musk’s first Master Plan, but Part Deux still needs some worth to accomplish. This is especially true for one aspect of the CEO’s target—expanding the company’s vehicle product line to address all major segments.
So far, Tesla has vehicles that compete in the large sedan, midsize sedan, SUV, and crossover market. This is one of the reasons why there is still so much more for Tesla to do. Granted, the Cybertruck will address the pickup market, the Semi will address the long-haul segment, and the new Roadster will compete in the supercar market. But there are still other segments to tap. One of these is the compact car market, which is populated with small, low-cost vehicles that are extremely aggressively priced.
Tesla and Elon Musk have both noted that the company will be producing a $25,000 electric car that is smaller and cheaper than the Model 3. Such a vehicle would likely be equipped with the best innovations that the company can offer for it to be profitable. These include low-cost and disruptive tabless 4680 battery cells and massive single-piece casts that are produced with the Giga Press. And considering that both Giga Shanghai and Giga Berlin seem poised to produce the $25,000 Tesla, there seems to be a good chance that the company’s Giga Press platoon is only bound to get bigger in the near future.
Watch Sandy Munro and Sean Mitchell’s conversations about Tesla and its innovations in the video below.
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Elon Musk
Elon Musk spotlights the Starlink rescue that got through where no cell tower could
Elon Musk spotlighted how Starlink helped rescuers reach five people stranded in Kazakhstan’s snowy mountains.
Elon Musk put a spotlight on a mountain rescue in eastern Kazakhstan on Sunday, writing “Starlink saves lives” in response to a post describing how SpaceX’s satellite internet helped five stranded people reach emergency crews.
The post from DogeDesigner, which had been viewed more than 500,000 times by Sunday afternoon, said the group’s SUV broke down about 15 kilometers from the village of Kystau Kurchum in an area with no usable mobile network. Starlink carried their call for help and kept them in contact with rescuers, who used the connection to locate them.
The rescue itself took place in October. Local outlet YK.kz reported on October 22 that Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Emergency Situations responded to the breakdown in the Kurchum district of East Kazakhstan region and noted that the group stayed in touch through Starlink. Rescuers covered roughly 100 kilometers in a Trekol, a low pressure tire vehicle built for snow and marshland, then escorted the disabled SUV back to Kystau Kurchum. Nobody needed medical attention.
Starlink saves lives
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 8, 2026
Conditions in the region were rough at the time. Kazakh broadcaster Channel 7 identified the five as hunters caught in a snow trap and said satellite communication allowed rescuers to pinpoint where they were. A spokesperson for the East Kazakhstan emergency department said a storm warning was in effect and urged residents not to leave populated areas unless necessary. The same weather stranded seven utility workers repairing power lines in the nearby Kuygan rural district, according to Tengrinews.
Kazakhstan has been one of Starlink’s more notable markets in Central Asia. Teslarati reported in 2024 that Starlink was serving 1,731 of the country’s 1,879 schools, with the country’s Education Minister saying it had set a new standard for internet service in schools.
Rescue stories like this one have followed Starlink for years, usually in places where ground networks fail or never existed in the first place. Then Florida CFO Jimmy Patronis called Starlink a “game changer” for search and rescue crews during Hurricane Milton, and SpaceX and T-Mobile switched on Starlink Direct to Cell in North Carolina to push emergency alerts to phones after Hurricane Helene.
The next target is dead zones for people who do not carry a dish at all. SpaceX is building out Starlink Mobile and earlier this week selected Qualcomm to supply core infrastructure for a planned terrestrial 5G network in the United States, which it intends to pair with its next generation satellite constellation.
Sunday’s post is at least the third time Musk has written “Starlink saves lives” on X this week, following identical posts on November 5 and November 7.
SpaceX plans to attempt what will be a defining moment in rocket reusability on Starship Flight 15.
As Elon Musk announced in a recent X post, SpaceX will attempt to catch both the Super Heavy Booster and the Starship upper stage during the upcoming orbital flight. If successful, it will mark the first time that all parts of an orbital rocket return to Earth intact, a breakthrough Musk has called essential to making life multiplanetary.
SpaceX will attempt to catch both the Super Heavy booster and Starship on the upcoming flight.
If both are successful, it will mark the first time that all parts of an orbital rocket return to Earth intact.
This is the critical breakthrough needed to make life multiplanetary.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 6, 2026
Previous flights have demonstrated the tower-catch technique with Super Heavy. SpaceX has successfully caught V1 boosters three times (on Flights 5, 7, and 8), with some even reflown. The Ship upper stage has never been caught.
Returning from orbital velocity after deploying payload makes it a significantly harder challenge due to higher energy, heat loads, and the need for precise belly-flop reentry, a flip maneuver, and a final landing burn to settle between the Mechazilla tower’s chopstick arms.
Flight 15, using Booster 22 and Ship 42 (both Block 3 vehicles), is targeted for no earlier than Friday, November 13, 2026, from Orbital Launch Pad 2 at Starbase, Texas. The 75-minute window opens at 4:45 p.m. CT, pending regulatory approval. After hot staging and separation, the booster is planned to return for a catch roughly 6 minutes and 35 seconds after liftoff.
The Ship will insert into a roughly 275 km orbit, deploy 26 advanced Starlink V3 satellites, complete about 14 orbits over more than 22 hours, and—if systems check out—perform a deorbit burn, reentry, flip, and landing burn for a tower catch at approximately T+22 hours 32 minutes.
SpaceX confirms Starship 15 launch window with massive ambitions
A simulation shown during SpaceX’s October earnings call depicted the Ship descending in a belly-flop attitude, flipping upright with a short engine burn, and being captured by the arms:
From simulation to reality
SpaceX is just ONE WEEK away from attempting its most ambitious Starship catch yet https://t.co/nHrxSX6DSz
— X Freeze (@XFreeze) November 6, 2026
Contingency splashdown zones exist in the Gulf of Mexico (booster) and Pacific (Ship) if a catch is not viable. SpaceX has stressed rigorous health checks before committing the Ship to a return-to-launch-site trajectory.
Musk has described the odds of success on this first dual-catch attempt as “more likely than not,” noting a steady stream of additional flights is already scheduled if needed. Full recovery would enable rapid inspection, refurbishment, and reflight—slashing costs and supporting the high launch cadence required for Starlink expansion, lunar missions, and eventual Mars settlement.
As Musk put it, this is “the critical breakthrough needed to make life multiplanetary.”
Tesla Cybercab is going to get some pretty substantial updates, including improvements to efficiency and a new color.
CEO Elon Musk said in a post on X on Saturday that Tesla would be working to refine the Cybercab even more, following the announcement during the week that the company would eliminate the Cybertruck lines within Giga Texas for more Cybercab manufacturing capacity.
“There are efficiency improvements coming that will allow for a 40kWh Cybercab pack,” Musk posted on X. “We will make this in liquid silver, so the colors are not too monotonous.”
There are efficiency improvements coming that will allow for a 40kWh Cybercab pack. We will make this in liquid silver, so the colors are not too monotonous.
The biggest thing most people fail to understand is that there are a very limited number of smart, dedicated people! They can only do so many things.
If we have to maintain a complex production line, supply chain and allocate engineering for Cybertruck, we can’t use those people or factory space and machinery for scaling Cybercab, which is the vehicle that will PROFOUNDLY transform the world of terrestrial transport!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 7, 2026
A new, more efficient model of the Cybercab will be engineered, which will only help Tesla’s profitability and margins, and it also boosts the argument for why the Cybertruck should be discontinued, at least from a business perspective.
The current Cybercab that operates in the Robotaxi platform in Austin, Texas, has a 48 kWh pack, and it sounds like Musk believes Tesla is on its way to introducing a version that has fewer cells but can manage the same workload thanks to engineering efficiencies.
Credit: Tesla
Musk also doubled down on the decision to prioritize Cybercab production over Cybertruck, which is a decision that has been extremely polarizing within the community, and many fans have made it abundantly clear that they are not particularly pleased with the plans.
“If we have to maintain a complex production line, supply chain, and allocate engineering for Cybertruck, we can’t use those people or factory space and machinery for scaling Cybercab, which is the vehicle that will PROFOUNDLY transform the world of terrestrial transport,” Musk said.
A good look at Tesla’s new Liquid Silver Cybercab, planned with a 40 kWh battery pack following new improvements
😍 https://t.co/IUYsUcCBMs
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) November 8, 2026
Cybercab is obviously Tesla’s path forward in an automotive sense. It seems that Tesla is less concerned about catering to the passenger vehicle market and is more prone to focus on transforming passenger transportation in a way that prioritizes autonomy. However, this requires some sacrifice on Tesla’s end, and the Cybertruck is unfortunately a victim of this.
Cybercab holds an extremely crucial part of Tesla’s future. With the company already revolutionizing passenger transportation once, this is the next phase, and Cybercab is the path forward.
Elon Musk spotlights the Starlink rescue that got through where no cell tower could
SpaceX will perform Starship double catch attempt with Flight 15
