On January 21, 2026, Dongfeng Motor's gigacasting plant in Wuhan's Economic and Technological Development Zone produced its first part: a battery casing cast on a 16,000-ton die casting machine. The plant houses two machines — a 16,000-ton press and a 10,000-ton press — described as the world's largest integrated die casting lines currently in operation. Mass production is scheduled to begin in June 2026.
The milestone marks a significant shift in gigacasting scale. Tesla's Giga Texas presses run at 9,000 tons. Dongfeng's 16,000-ton machine exceeds that by roughly 78%, producing components in a single shot that previously required assembly from hundreds of welded parts.
The Plant: Scale and Scope
The facility covers 47,000 square meters in Wuhan and was built in a single construction phase, completed approximately 25 days ahead of schedule. Total investment for phase one is around 1 billion yuan (approximately USD 143 million). The 16,000-ton machine was designed and manufactured in China by LK Machinery.
Phase one targets 200,000 components per year from the two-machine setup. Phase two plans to add four additional production lines, bringing total annual capacity to 600,000 units. The plant's stated scope covers ultra-large structural castings for new energy vehicles: rear underbody assemblies, battery casings, and front underbody sections.
What makes the Dongfeng program notable is the coverage. The company states it is the first automaker in China to achieve a gigacasting layout spanning the front, middle, and rear sections of a vehicle — a full-body gigacasting architecture rather than a single-section application.
What a 16,000-Ton Press Actually Does
Clamping force determines maximum shot size. At 16,000 tons, the machine can hold together a mold large enough to cast components significantly bigger than what 6,000–9,000-ton machines can produce. In practical terms, this enables casting of battery trays and rear floor assemblies as single parts — components that in conventional manufacturing require hundreds of stamped pieces, welding jigs, and assembly operations.
The Dongfeng plant's 10,000-ton press runs a two-minute cycle for battery trays and battery casings. Molten aluminum at 720°C is injected into the mold; the moving half closes against the stationary half at 10,000 tons of force; two minutes later, the part is ejected. The reduction from multi-part assembly to a single casting eliminates weld joints, reduces weight, and lowers energy consumption per vehicle.
The China Gigacasting Landscape in 2026
Dongfeng's plant is the most prominent recent addition to a rapidly expanding Chinese gigacasting ecosystem. Several other programs are at advanced stages:
| Company | Press Capacity | Status (as of May 2026) | Application |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dongfeng Motor | 16,000t + 10,000t | First part Jan 2026; mass production June 2026 | Battery casings, rear underbody, front underbody |
| BYD | 9,000t (upgrading to 13,000t) | 9,000t operational; 13,000t planned | Structural body components |
| XPENG | Multiple lines | Operational; 20–25% weight reduction reported | Front and rear underbody |
| Li Auto | Multiple lines | Operational; 20–25% weight reduction reported | Underbody structure |
| Guangdong Hongtu | Up to 12,000t | In development | Tier-1 supplier to multiple OEMs |
| GAC | — | 1.2 billion yuan plant investment; 40% cost reduction target by 2026 | NEV structural components |
The trend is clear: Chinese OEMs and Tier-1 suppliers are moving faster and at larger scale than their Western counterparts on gigacasting adoption. Industry commentary from Gasgoo characterizes 2026 as "the dawn of mass-produced gigacasting" in China, with the landscape splitting between large OEMs pursuing scale through investment and startups optimizing around cost and flexibility.
Battery Casings as the New Frontier
Earlier gigacasting applications focused on rear underbody structures — replacing the 70–171 stamped parts that make up the rear floor of a vehicle. Dongfeng's program extends this to battery casings, which is a different and more demanding application.
A battery casing must provide structural support, thermal management, and electrical isolation in a single part that also has to survive crash loads. Casting a battery casing as a single piece rather than assembling it from welded sections reduces weld-joint failure risk and improves dimensional consistency — both relevant to battery safety. The ability to use aluminum die casting for battery housing components has been a growing requirement as EV platforms scale and OEMs seek to reduce assembly complexity.
The alloy requirements for gigacast battery casings are specific: the material must deliver structural strength without post-cast heat treatment (T6 treatment on large parts causes unacceptable distortion), maintain dimensional stability, and meet pressure tightness specifications. This has driven development of purpose-formulated non-heat-treat aluminum alloys by multiple suppliers — the alloy story behind gigacasting is as important as the machine story.
What This Means for the Broader Die Casting Supply Chain
Dongfeng's 16,000-ton plant represents the upper end of what gigacasting investment looks like in 2026. But the implications for the broader aluminum die casting supply chain extend beyond OEM-scale investments.
Several dynamics are worth tracking:
- Part consolidation continues. Every gigacast battery casing or underbody structure removes conventional stampings and smaller castings from the supply chain. The net effect on total aluminum casting volume depends on how much the eliminated parts were previously cast versus stamped — but the parts-per-vehicle count reduction is real.
- Alloy specification tightens. Gigacast components require verified alloy composition because material consistency directly affects large-part integrity. Spectrometer verification of incoming alloy at the production level is now a basic expectation, not an option.
- China is setting the pace. The combination of domestic machine manufacturing (LK Machinery producing 16,000-ton presses), OEM investment, and supply chain density gives Chinese gigacasting programs a cost and speed advantage that Western programs are still working to match.
- Repairability remains an open question. Large single-piece castings that are damaged in collisions present repair challenges that conventional multi-part assemblies don't. Tesla has developed "Gigacast Sectioning" methods for cost-effective repairs. Other OEMs are handling this differently — Xpeng uses separate crash cans on some models to allow simpler repair of the cast section.
Sources
Car News China — "World's largest 16,000-ton die-casting production line by Dongfeng commenced operation" (January 22, 2026)
https://carnewschina.com/2026/01/22/worlds-largest-16000-ton-die-casting-production-line-by-dongfeng-commenced-operation/
Gasgoo — "First Product Rolls Off 16,000-Ton Line, Dongfeng Motor Doubles Down on Integrated Die-Casting" (January 22, 2026)
https://autonews.gasgoo.com/articles/market-industry/first-product-rolls-off-16000-ton-line...
The Gigacasting Newsletter (Industry Arsenal) — Weekly Gigacasting News #32, #40 (2025)
https://www.industryarsenal.com/p/weekly-gigacasting-news-32-0e210a394f0f861a
Good Car Bad Car — "Dongfeng Just Built a 16,000-Ton Reality Check" (September 2025)
https://www.goodcarbadcar.net/dongfeng-just-built-a-16000-ton-reality-check-for-everyone-who-thought-gigacasting-was-teslas-moat/
