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At EuroCarBody 2026, BMW presented the body of the new X5. Its rear underbody is built around two aluminium die-cast rear side rails cast by Nemak, instead of a single one-piece Rear Gigacasting.

The X5 has to carry five different powertrains in one body. BMW solved this with four different rear-floor modules, while the two cast rails are the same across every version and form an H-shaped frame at the back of the underbody.

According to the conference talk as reported by Martin Lagler and by Die-Casting Weekly, BMW made this choice deliberately over a full Rear Gigacasting. The car also keeps the two front shock-tower castings carried over from the previous generation.

Nemak casts the rails, which it calls the X5 longitudinal member, at its new, highly automated plant in Georgia, USA, on a 6,100-ton die-casting machine. Nemak describes the part as an important milestone for its series production of large structural castings.

The rear rails are made on a Bühler Carat 610 cells with a two-cavity die, and that they save 11 kg. Because the parts are made at a supplier and shipped to BMW's Spartanburg plant, a full rear-floor casting would have brought extra logistics challenges, and BMW sees the two-rail concept as the best balance between integration, weight, manufacturing and logistics.

In July 2025, Nemak agreed to acquire the automotive business of GF Casting Solutions, the Swiss lightweight-casting specialist. Among its sites is a plant in Augusta, Georgia, which The Gigacasting Database lists with three Bühler cells of 6,220 tons making body structural parts for BMW.

BMW's own large-casting history runs through its Landshut light-metal foundry in Bavaria, where a 5,700-ton ItalPresseGauss machine for battery-tray parts was, when installed, the largest die-casting machine in Europe, and where ItalPresseGauss is set to deliver a new 5,200-ton machine, as announced in January 2026.

The same day at EuroCarBody, Audi showed the new Q7, whose body uses 12 high-pressure die castings, from small end plates to large underbody parts.

Machine counts for Nemak and BMW are in the Gigacasting Database.

Source: Nemak on LinkedIn 1 & 2 — Oct 2026; Martin Lagler on LinkedIn — Oct 2026; 压铸周刊

Volvo Cars has been casting the one-piece aluminium rear underbody of the EX60 in series production at its Torslanda plant in Sweden since the end of April 2026, on two Bühler Carat 840 cells. Casting and machining now run around the clock.

The single casting replaces around 100 stamped and assembled parts. According to Bühler, each Carat 840 has 8,400 tonnes of locking force and can inject more than 200 kg of molten aluminium into the die in milliseconds. Each complete cell is 7.6 metres tall, takes up about 160 square metres and weighs more than 1,000 tonnes once installed, and bringing the two cells to Torslanda took 120 truckloads.

The rear underbody comes out of a 130-tonne die with modular inserts, so single sections can be swapped when the design changes without replacing the whole die. The EX60 sits on Volvo's new SPA3 electric platform, where the battery is a load-bearing part of the structure.

Plant manager Peter Schüler told the Swedish magazine Bergsmannen that the first prototype was cast in Torslanda in March 2024. About 100 people work in the new operation, some hired from outside as experts and some moved over from the existing Torslanda works. "The capacity of the Torslanda plant is 60 cars an hour, and we are gradually scaling up production in the foundry," he said. With the old stamped-steel rear floor, roughly half of the material ended up as scrap sent back to the supplier. Now everything Volvo buys is remelted in its own production.

The team checks 230 parameters on every shot, 25 of them critical, to make the process as repeatable as possible. The plant was built to Volvo's specifications and supplied by Bühler, in a separate new building that went up without disrupting existing production, and its melting line is heated with natural gas. Schüler sees front body parts as a possible next step, once the rear floor is fully mastered, and expects megacasting to become an industry standard.

The road to this point runs through 2024, when two Bühler machines of about 8,500 tons were confirmed at Volvo's Daqing plant in China, and Volvo then laid out its megacasting plans at its Capital Markets Day. In Torslanda, a dedicated hall was built for the two Carat 840 cells, and by late 2025 the line was getting ready for its first mass production. On 21 January 2026, Volvo unveiled the EX60, its first car designed and built around a megacast rear underbody.

Meanwhile, Volvo's new plant in Košice, Slovakia, is installing two IDRA machines of about 9,000 tons, and Schüler confirms it will use the same technology.

Volvo's machines in Sweden, Slovakia and China are tracked in the Gigacasting Database.

Source: Bühler via Foundry-Planet — 21 Oct 2026; Bergsmannen — 9 Oct 2026

Bole Machinery says it has held the launch ceremony in North America for the first MTX 2,500-ton thixomolding machine on the continent, with its strategic customer Leggera Technologies, and that installation is under way. The unit is built for large magnesium-alloy structural parts for EV and automotive programmes.

The machine is a Bole MTX 2500 (shown in Bole’s posts as MTX2500D Super Thixomolding). Bole frames the ceremony as a milestone for BOLE Intelligent in North America and says more thixomolding capacity for the region is planned. Installation “will kick off shortly” in Bole’s wording; the press is already on site for that step.

This follows Leggera Technologies, LLC breaking ground on a 45,000 sq. ft. addition to its Michigan operations, purpose-built for new thixomolding presses and higher output. Leggera is a U.S. magnesium thixomolding supplier with engineering, extrusions, machining, powder coat and assembly in-house. Named programmes on the company site include Jeep Wrangler, Ford Bronco, Chrysler Pacifica, and the Rivian Amazon EDV, among others.

Leggera Technologies, LLC has also acquired PAWS Workholding and Montague Tooling & Manufacturing, both based in Clio, Michigan.

The three firms stay under one Michigan group spanning Holly, Lake Orion and Clio: Leggera for magnesium thixomolding, finishing and assembly; Montague for production CNC of magnesium, copper, aluminum, titanium and forgings; and PAWS for custom hydraulic workholding fixtures and turnkey CNC cells.

CEO Thomas Kowal and co-founder Nathan Sanko call it an investment in Michigan manufacturing; customers include automotive, defense, aerospace, robotics and automation.

Founded in 2014 by Nathan Sanko and Tom Darnell, Leggera’s path runs through Jeep Wrangler swing-gate work for FCA, a 2018 SPE Automotive Innovation Award (Jeep Wrangler polymer-hybrid spare-tire carrier with FCA, Grammer and DuPont), a DOE LightMAT magnesium-alloy project with FCA the same year, and the March 2019 Orion Township HQ plan (about $17 million and roughly 50 jobs over five years).

The group runs from Orion Township (Leggera Thixo Technologies, LLC) and Holly. The Michigan build-out plus the first North American Bole MTX 2,500-ton install is the next capacity step, from ground broken to a named press on the floor.

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/bole-machinery-inc_bole-semisolidmolding-thixomolding-activity-7520483077320523777-OhT_

Prior Leggera ground-break: https://www.industryarsenal.com/p/weekly-gigacasting-news-64

Ford has cast more than 5,000 large aluminium Unicastings for the Fathom midsize electric pickup at its Shelbyville Technical Center, and is shipping approved batches to Louisville Assembly Plant for process testing and prototype builds ahead of the truck’s 2027 launch.

Each Fathom will use a pair of Unicastings, one front and one rear structure to reduce 146 structural parts to just two.

“The unicastings have enabled an innovative new way of assembling vehicles on Ford's new Universal Production System by splitting a traditional assembly line into three main branches. This allows vehicle sections to be built in parallel simultaneously before they’re then assembled into a vehicle. 

The team is obsessively reducing cycle time of the unicastings for efficiency. Each unicasting goes through rigorous quality checks before leaving for Louisville Assembly Plant as it moves towards the launch next year. Ford’s unicastings have been specifically engineered for modular repairability.” Wrote Vladimir Bogachuk, chief engineer for advanced vehicle structure architecture at Ford.

The castings are made from aluminium ingots melted at about 1,300°F (700°C), injected into molds, quenched, trimmed and machined, then run through dimensional checks, X-ray, optical surface scans, and lab tensile and chemistry tests.

Production batches stay on hold until those inspections clear; only then do they leave for Louisville. Ford says the team is cutting Unicasting cycle time and that the parts are engineered for modular repairability.

Full details on machine size, quantity and supplier when disclosed: The Gigacasting Database

On August 11, 2025, Ford announced a $2 billion overhaul of Louisville to build affordable EVs on its Universal EV Platform, with a midsize electric pickup as the first vehicle for 2027.

Unicasting — Ford’s name for large aluminium structural Gigacastings — sits at the centre of that plan: front and rear sections built around the castings, a third branch for the structural battery pack with seats and interior, then bolted and bonded together in a parallel “assembly tree” that Ford said can cut assembly time by about 15% net (up to 40% raw).

Later updates filled in the Fathom name, an under-$30,000 target (more recently cited at $28,350), prototype tooling timing, and that Louisville remained on track for mass production in 2027. This Shelbyville milestone moves the programme from plan into casting volume for prototypes.

On Ford’s recent earnings call, Chief Operating Officer A. Kumar Galhotra said about 90% of validation testing was done, that first production-line vehicles had been built in Louisville, and that supplier readiness at rate was the main remaining risk. Ford expects Fathom launch in the fourth quarter of 2027.

Source: Ford From the Road (Vladimir Bogachuk) — https://www.fromtheroad.ford.com/us/en/articles/2026/ford-fathom-electric-truck-5000-unicastings