Lexus Shanghai gigacasting line by Toyota: status and timeline

Lexus Shanghai gigacasting line

Cut the parts, steps and factory cost of building an EV so Toyota can compete on price and speed with Chinese EV makers.

ProtoStage 2 of 5

Shanghai plant nearly done; gigacast next-gen Lexus electric SUV due to start production in autumn 2027.

Updated 28 Aug 2026Checked 11 Oct0 updates this week

Milestones

Next · Plant construction complete

Gigacast rear body prototype: 86 parts become one2023Complete.
Strategic agreement with Shanghai for Lexus plant22 Apr 2025Complete.
Groundbreaking of Jinshan plant27 Jun 2025Complete.
Plant construction completeTarget Aug 2026Current milestone.
Next-gen Lexus EV with gigacast body enters productionTarget Q4 2027+21 mo~~originally 2026~~Not yet reached.
Output scaled to tens of thousands a yearTarget 2028Not yet reached.

Most important updates

Upcoming

Aug 2026Plant construction complete (next)
Q4 2027Next-gen Lexus EV with gigacast body enters production+21 mo~~originally 2026~~
2028Output scaled to tens of thousands a year

Current obstacles

Plan already slipped a yearThe first gigacast EV was aimed at 2026; production now starts in autumn 2027, at a modest 1,000 cars a month.
Crash repairsA damaged one-piece casting is hard to repair, which can mean replacing a whole body section and raising insurance costs.
Late to a fast marketToyota brings these methods to China years after Tesla and Chinese makers, into the world's most price-competitive EV market.

Physics limits

Defects grow with casting sizeMolten metal must fill a metre-scale mould before it freezes; trapped gas and uneven cooling create pores and warping, and one flaw scraps the whole part.
Cast aluminium is less ductileCastings bend less before cracking than stamped steel or wrought aluminium, so engineers need special alloys and careful design for crash zones.
Huge presses, fixed designsMachines with thousands of tonnes of clamping force and costly moulds pay off only at high volume, and changing the body design means a new mould.

How it works

4 parts

Casting

One giant aluminium casting

Molten aluminium alloy is shot into a huge steel mould at high speed and pressure, then cooled from about 700°C to 250°C in seconds.

Moulds

Quick-change moulds

A general-purpose mould base stays in the press and only a smaller specialised insert is swapped, aiming for changeovers of 20 minutes, not a day.

Know-how

Craft rules turned into simulation

Toyota encoded its master casters' rules of thumb into simulation software, so defects in such a large part can be predicted before metal is poured.

Assembly

Cars that drive themselves down the line

Part-built cars move under their own power between stations instead of riding a conveyor, so the line is cheaper and easier to rearrange.

Spec sheet

Spec	Lexus Shanghai gigacasting line
Plant capacity (initial)	100,000 vehicles/year^R (reported)
First-year output	About 1,000/month^R (reported)
Plant investment	CNY 14.6B^R (reported)
Rear body parts (bZ4X prototype)	86 parts to 1 casting^R (reported)
Time to cast rear section	About 3 minutes^R (reported)
Die changeover target	20 minutes or less^R (reported)
Weight saving on cast sections	Up to 20%^R (reported)

^R reported by the company

Update log

3 updates

About Toyota

The team behind Lexus Shanghai gigacasting line

Toyota

Vehicles, batteries, solid-state, electric, hydrogen

Toyota is the world's largest automaker by volume. It pioneered mass-production hybrid vehicles (Prius, 1997) and leads in electric and hydrogen fuel-cell development. The company is developing all-solid-state batteries with ceramic electrolytes to enable longer-range EVs with faster charging.

Developed sulfide-based solid-state batteries with Idemitsu Kosan; Japan approved production in October 2025.
First vehicles equipped in 2027–2028 targeting 1,000 km range and 10-minute charging.
Solid ceramic electrolyte replaces liquid, enabling denser, safer, more efficient cells with higher energy density.

global.toyota (opens global.toyota)Company profile →

Founded: 193789 yrs
Headquarters: Japan
Status: Public
Valuation: public
Works in: EnergyBatteriesVehicles
Coverage: 2 programs · 6 updateslatest 28 Aug 2026checked 10 Oct
Partners: Idemitsu Kosan (opens idemitsu.com)Sumitomo Metal Mining (opens sumitomometals.com)

Spec

Lexus Shanghai gigacasting line

Plant capacity (initial)

100,000 vehicles/year^R (reported)

First-year output

About 1,000/month^R (reported)

Plant investment

CNY 14.6B^R (reported)

Rear body parts (bZ4X prototype)

86 parts to 1 casting^R (reported)

Time to cast rear section

About 3 minutes^R (reported)

Die changeover target

20 minutes or less^R (reported)

Weight saving on cast sections

Up to 20%^R (reported)

Lexus Shanghai gigacasting line

Milestones

Most important updates

Upcoming

Current obstacles

Physics limits

How it works

One giant aluminium casting

Quick-change moulds

Craft rules turned into simulation

Cars that drive themselves down the line

Spec sheet

Update log

Fri 28 Aug

Fri 27 Jun 2025

Dec 2023

About Toyota

Current obstacles

Physics limits

How it works

One giant aluminium casting

Quick-change moulds

Craft rules turned into simulation

Cars that drive themselves down the line

Spec sheet

Update log

Fri 28 Aug

Fri 27 Jun 2025

Dec 2023

About Toyota