Rumors have recently emerged from China suggesting that Tesla is looking to tap Switzerland’s Bühler as another Giga Press supplier. Similar to IDRA, Bühler is also a manufacturer of large-scale die-casting machines.
The rumor was initially shared by Tesla and EV industry watcher Chris Zheng on Twitter. Citing information from employees of a Chinese car startup, Zheng noted that China would have a number of vehicles in mass production next year that will be using integrated die castings like the Tesla Model Y. These companies reportedly benchmark and analyze Tesla and its vehicles.
“Tesla’s Giga press supplier will be replaced from Italy’s IDRA to Switzerland’s Bühler next year. The latter is also one of the world’s 6 largest die-casting giants. It rejected Tesla’s demand for a 6000t-level Giga press in 2019, but now their products offer better performance,” Zheng wrote on Twitter.
This is undoubtedly a rumor for now, though it is one that is extremely interesting. Teslarati has reached out to Tesla for a comment on the rumor and will update this story if or when we receive a response.
While the idea of IDRA being replaced by Bühler may sound too extreme, it is possible that Tesla would tap the resources of another die casting machine maker for its upcoming vehicle production ramp. Bühler is an interesting choice nonetheless, especially since the company was one of the firms that rejected Tesla’s proposal for a 6,000-ton Giga Press a few years ago.
Elon Musk himself mentioned this during the Cyber Rodeo event. According to Musk, Tesla had approach the world’s six top die-casting machine makers, and all but IDRA considered the construction of a Giga Press. Tesla has since proven that Giga Presses work, however, so it’s not surprising to see other companies also trying their hand at creating Giga Press-level machines.
“It’s a revolution in car manufacturing to basically make a car out of three major parts — a cast rear, a structural pack, and a cast front. So what you’re looking at are the biggest casting machines ever made. It’s kind of crazy thing to make a car this way. It’s never been done before.
“When we were trying to figure this out, there were six major casting manufacturers in the world. We called six. Five said’ no,’ one said ‘maybe.’ I was like ‘that sounds like a yes.’ So with a lot of effort and great ideas from the team, we’ve made the world’s biggest casting machine work very efficiently to create and radically simplify the manufacturing of the car,” Musk said.
A look at Bühler’s official website shows that the company is also developing giant die-casting machines that offer the highest productivity.
“Automotive manufacturers are currently rethinking production in many ways. Our Carat series enables them to put their ideas of even larger parts into reality, and we support our customers in developing the processes to do so. We see a huge increase in the demand for ever larger machines. With our Carat 840 and Carat 920 we can offer our customers solutions for large structural parts with complex geometries and new body-in-white parts,” Cornel Mendler, Managing Director of Bühler Die Casting, said.
Bühler’s Carat 840 and Carat 920 machines feature locking forces of up to 92,000 kilonewtons (kN). They are also designed to produce as little scrap as possible. “Bühler’s vision for the future of the die casting industry is: 0% scrap, 40% less cycle time, and 24/7 uptime. Advancing further towards this vision is even more important: The larger the castings, the bigger the lever to minimize production costs by reducing scrap, cycle time and increasing uptime of the die-casting system. The design of the Carat 840 and Carat 920 positively impact the quality of these complex, thin-walled parts which require an extremely powerful and accurate injection unit and a homogenous locking force application,” the company wrote in a press release.
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News
Tesla takes first step in sunsetting Model S and X with drastic move
Tesla won’t be taking custom orders of the Model S or Model X in Europe any longer.
Tesla has seemingly taken the first step in sunsetting two of its older vehicles, the Model S and Model X, by ending international orders.
The flagship sedan and SUV from Tesla are the two oldest cars in the company’s lineup. They account for a very small portion of overall sales, and several years ago, CEO Elon Musk admitted that Tesla only continues to build and sell them due to “sentimental reasons.”
Earlier this year, there were calls for Tesla to end the production of the two cars, but Lars Moravy said that the Model S and Model X were due to get some love later in 2025. That happened, but the changes were extremely minor.
Tesla launches new Model S and Model X, and the changes are slim
Some took this as an indication that Tesla has kind of moved on from the Model S and Model X. A handful of people seemed to think Tesla would overhaul the vehicles substantially, but the changes were extremely minor and included only a few real adjustments.
In Europe, customers are unable to even put a new order in on a Model S or Model X.
We noticed earlier today that Tesla pressing the ‘Order’ button on either of the flagship vehicles takes you to local inventory, and not the Design Studio where you’d configure your custom build:
🚨 Tesla has removed the Model S and Model X Design Configurators from European customers
It will now bring up available inventory for those two vehicles instead of allowing you to build your own config pic.twitter.com/sMnGAr2kuu
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 30, 2025
Tesla simply does not make enough Model S or Model X units to justify the expensive logistics process of shipping custom orders overseas. It almost seems as if they’re that they will essentially build a bunch of random configurations, send them overseas every few months, and let them sell before replenishing inventory.
Inversely, it could also mean Tesla is truly gearing up to sunset the vehicle altogether. It seems unlikely that the company will fade them out altogether in the next couple of years, but it could absolutely think about ending international orders because volume is so low.
Energy
Tesla inks multi-billion-dollar deal with LG Energy Solution to avoid tariff pressure
Tesla has reportedly secured a sizable partnership with LGES for LFP cells, and there’s an extra positive out of it.
Tesla has reportedly inked a multi-billion-dollar deal with LG Energy Solution in an effort to avoid tariff pressure and domesticate more of its supply chain.
Reuters is reporting that Tesla and LGES, a South Korean battery supplier of the automaker, signed a $4.3 billion deal for energy storage system batteries. The cells are going to be manufactured by LGES at its U.S. factory located in Michigan, the report indicates. The batteries will be the lithium iron phosphate, or LFP, chemistry.
Tesla delivers 384,000 vehicles in Q2 2025, deploys 9.6 GWh in energy storage
It is a move Tesla is making to avoid buying cells and parts from overseas as the Trump White House continues to use tariffs to prioritize domestic manufacturing.
LGES announced earlier today that it had signed a $4.3 billion contract to supply LFP cells over three years to a company, but it did not identify the customer, nor did the company state whether the batteries would be used in automotive or energy storage applications.
The deal is advantageous for both companies. Tesla is going to alleviate its reliance on battery cells that are built out of the country, so it’s going to be able to take some financial pressure off itself.
For LGES, the company has reported that it has experienced slowed demand for its cells in terms of automotive applications. It planned to offset this demand lag with more projects involving the cells in energy storage projects. This has been helped by the need for these systems at data centers used for AI.
During the Q1 Earnings Call, Tesla CFO Vaibhav Taneja confirmed that the company’s energy division had been impacted by the need to source cells from China-based suppliers. He went on to say that the company would work on “securing additional supply chain from non-China-based suppliers.”
It seems as if Tesla has managed to secure some of this needed domestic supply chain.
Lifestyle
Tesla brings perhaps the coolest interior feature to cars in latest update
Tesla adds on to the “fun” aspect of its vehicles.
Tesla has brought perhaps the coolest interior feature to its cars in a new update that is rolling out to vehicles now.
The feature will require a newer vehicle that has interior ambient lighting, which is present on the new Model S, Model X, Model 3 “Highland,” and Model Y “Juniper.” The Cybertruck also has ambient lighting strips throughout.
Tesla Model Y’s ambient lighting design changes revealed in leaked video
With the Version 2025.26+ Software Update, Tesla is rolling out a new “Sync Accent Lights w/ Music” feature, which is available on the Tesla Toybox:
Turn your Tesla into a rave cave with the new Light Sync feature 🎶
Rolling out now in software update 2025.26+ pic.twitter.com/IIsQxZ9jDP
— Tesla (@Tesla) July 29, 2025
To enable the feature, you’ll access the Toybox, choose “Light Sync,” and then choose “Sync Accent Lights w/ Music.”
Although it does not improve the performance of the vehicle, it is yet another example of Tesla making one of the coolest cars out there. This is truly a cool add-on that can be used to impress your friends and family.
Tesla takes first step in sunsetting Model S and X with drastic move
Tesla inks multi-billion-dollar deal with LG Energy Solution to avoid tariff pressure
Tesla brings perhaps the coolest interior feature to cars in latest update
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