Ah, here was the communications problem:
"Cybertruck will be v1.0 of Tesla's
new approach to vehicle manufacturing. For the
next generation of Tesla manufacturing, let's look at the following, excerpted from US Patent"
I interpreted "
new approach" as being intended as synonymous with "
next generation". I didn't even get to the point where you wrote 2023 (near the bottom of your post) because I wasn't agreeing with literally anything you were writing because of the above misunderstanding.
In this case, I wouldn't be surprised if you're correct. Note that if Tesla does switch to casting, Cybertruck will no longer need to be "cyber"; it won't have to be angular, and they almost certainly will smooth it out in order to get a better drag coefficient (and the dramatic benefits that come with that). Unless their battery costs are so low, energy densities so high, and charge powers so high that they can just throw caution to the wind and do whatever shapes they want
Also, another side effect: metal foams have some natural insulation and sound damping properties.
AFAIK thermal conductivity is roughly linear with porosity.
ED: Huh... I just had a realization. The quenched skins of a metal foam sandwich, still containing grains of a foaming compound, would likely function as a form of
non-explosive reactive armour if hit by a HEAT round... (melt the compound, it should outgas and deform, which would constantly shift the point of impact of the incoming copper stream). I'd suspect that even the already-foamed material is probably quite good at dispersing the stream on its own.
Again, making veritable APCs isn't the
goal, but....
