It is easy to imagine the rising temperature in carmakers’ marketing departments: the supply of good prefixes is slowly running out. One day, Wolfsburg will inevitably unveil something involving “ID” and a full stop – perhaps ID.Cast – or, failing that, a German compound such as Einstückgroßstrukturbauteilgießverfahren: impossible to pronounce, but reassuringly precise. Mercedes, of course, does not cast. Mercedes crafts. The component will be called Monocasting, an exercise in refined understatement, also available as an AMG Line with a cast-in starry sky.
BMW will promise Sheer Casting Pleasure and integrate the kidney grille directly into the mould – generously proportioned, in keeping with house tradition. Porsche is still considering whether to call its process Turbocasting, since almost everything in Zuffenhausen is called Turbo, including the electric cars. Stellantis, the patchwork family of fourteen brands, could give its casting process fourteen different names, from Peugeot to Maserati. Nobody there would call that inefficient. It would be celebrated as diversity in action.
Which leaves the question of escalation. After giga comes tera, then peta. Eventually, someone will cast the entire car in a single shot, doors included, and call it Omnicasting. Only one name must remain off limits, for reasons of sensitivity. Totalcasting sounds too much like what the insurance company says after the vehicle has met a lamppost.
And yet there is good news to report on precisely this point. Ford is designing its Unicasting components so that they can be repaired – with a saw, adhesive and predefined cutting zones. The damaged section is removed and a replacement takes its place. The television viewer who once associated casting with singing teenagers can then stand in the workshop and understand the world again. One part becomes vacant; another steps into the role. And anyone who loses track of all the prefixes can take comfort in one thing: ultimately, it is all just casting. The next series is bound to follow.
Read more about Unicasting here.
