Tesla has received more shipments in large wooden crates marked "IDRA." For those unaware, IDRA is the company that produces the colossal die-casting machines Tesla is using to cast its vehicles in large sections, which streamlines the production process and provides a number of notable benefits.
As we eagerly anticipate the opening of Tesla's new Gigafactory production facility in Austin Texas, Tesla fans and owners continue to provide updates related to the factory. Typically, these updates come from details gleaned via drone flyovers.
According to Teslarati, these shipments suggest that Tesla could now have four 6,000-ton IDRA machines specifically for manufacturing the Model Y electric crossover. However, these die-casting machines could potentially be of a different size, such as the larger models that will be used for the Tesla Cybertruck, though that's not as likely since Tesla will begin producing the Model Y long before the electric pickup truck.
The drone flyover video above comes from Jeff Roberts who has been following the developments at Giga Austin for some time.
Teslarati shared another tweet related to the sightings, which Jeff Roberts, along with Joe Tegtmeyer – another drone operator who's been documenting Giga Texas construction – both replied to.
The tweets above suggest that the IDRA shipments may instead be related to the Tesla Cybertruck, which will require an 8,000-ton megacasting machine. While Tesla doesn't plan to launch Cybertruck production until much later in 2022, we know the automaker placed an order back in March 2021 for the larger die-casting machine for the Cybertruck.
Nobody seems to know for sure what's in the massive crates. However, Jeff Roberts replied to the above tweets stating, "I hadn’t thought of that, but you might be onto something here." We've also included Robert's and Tegtmeyer's replies below:
Hopefully, Tegtmeyer can get more information related to the situation. He's been able to verify details from insiders in the past, so we'll have to wait and see what he can find out.
See More Tesla IDRA Giga Press Coverage:
Source: Jeff Roberts (YouTube) via Teslarati