ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY
The Engineering Behind Every Xolaris Product.
We publish what other brands leave out. Material certifications. FEA results. Load test data. Forging process documentation. Because a $6,000+ purchase deserves transparency, not marketing claims.
THE FORGING PROCESS
From Raw Billet to Finished Wheel.
Raw Billet Selection
Every wheel begins as a solid billet of certified 6061-T6 aluminum alloy. Each billet is spectrographically verified for alloy composition before entering production. No recycled or off-grade material enters the process.
Forging Press
The billet is heated to precise temperature and compressed under 10,000 tons of force into a near-net shape. This process aligns the aluminum's internal grain structure into a continuous, dense matrix — eliminating the air pockets and random grain orientation that cause cast wheels to fail under cyclic loading.
Heat Treatment
Post-forging, the wheel undergoes T6 heat treatment: solution heat treatment at elevated temperature followed by artificial aging. This process maximizes tensile strength and yield strength, locking in the alloy's mechanical properties at their peak.
CNC Rough Machining
Five-axis CNC machining begins with the rough pass — removing bulk material to establish the primary geometry. The wheel is fixtured with CT-specific datum points to ensure dimensional accuracy relative to the hub face and bolt circle.
CNC Finish Machining
The finish machining pass brings all critical surfaces to final dimension. Spoke profiles, barrel geometry, and hub face are machined to tolerances measured in hundredths of a millimeter. Every spoke is individually measured against the master CAD model.
Surface Finishing
Depending on finish specification, the wheel undergoes either bead blasting, brushing, or polishing before coating. All Xolaris wheels receive a protective coating applied via PVD or powder-coat process — specified for the open wheel-well environment of the Cybertruck, which exposes the finish to direct road debris and water ingress.
Quality Inspection
Each wheel is individually inspected against a 47-point quality checklist: dimensional verification at all critical surfaces, visual inspection under high-intensity lighting, balance check, and load test sampling. No wheel leaves production without a traceable quality record.
Final Product
The finished wheel is weighed, balanced to within 2g, and packaged with its unique production serial number, material certification, and installation guide. The serial number enables warranty traceability for the lifetime of the wheel.
Raw Billet Selection
Every wheel begins as a solid billet of certified 6061-T6 aluminum alloy. Each billet is spectrographically verified for alloy composition before entering production. No recycled or off-grade material enters the process.
Forging Press
The billet is heated to precise temperature and compressed under 10,000 tons of force into a near-net shape. This process aligns the aluminum's internal grain structure into a continuous, dense matrix — eliminating the air pockets and random grain orientation that cause cast wheels to fail under cyclic loading.
Heat Treatment
Post-forging, the wheel undergoes T6 heat treatment: solution heat treatment at elevated temperature followed by artificial aging. This process maximizes tensile strength and yield strength, locking in the alloy's mechanical properties at their peak.
CNC Rough Machining
Five-axis CNC machining begins with the rough pass — removing bulk material to establish the primary geometry. The wheel is fixtured with CT-specific datum points to ensure dimensional accuracy relative to the hub face and bolt circle.
CNC Finish Machining
The finish machining pass brings all critical surfaces to final dimension. Spoke profiles, barrel geometry, and hub face are machined to tolerances measured in hundredths of a millimeter. Every spoke is individually measured against the master CAD model.
Surface Finishing
Depending on finish specification, the wheel undergoes either bead blasting, brushing, or polishing before coating. All Xolaris wheels receive a protective coating applied via PVD or powder-coat process — specified for the open wheel-well environment of the Cybertruck, which exposes the finish to direct road debris and water ingress.
Quality Inspection
Each wheel is individually inspected against a 47-point quality checklist: dimensional verification at all critical surfaces, visual inspection under high-intensity lighting, balance check, and load test sampling. No wheel leaves production without a traceable quality record.
Final Product
The finished wheel is weighed, balanced to within 2g, and packaged with its unique production serial number, material certification, and installation guide. The serial number enables warranty traceability for the lifetime of the wheel.
WHY THE CYBERTRUCK DEMANDS FORGED
Cast Wheels Were Not Engineered for This Platform.
The Cybertruck weighs 6,843 pounds. It produces over 600 lb-ft of instant torque. It uses a steer-by-wire system that transfers force through the wheels differently than any mechanical steering rack. Its air suspension cycles the wheels through a 4-inch travel range. And its owners drive it daily on American roads — potholes, expansion joints, gravel, and highway speeds.
Every one of these demands punishes cast aluminum. Cast wheels trap microscopic air pockets during the cooling process. Under repeated stress cycles, those pockets become failure points. Forged aluminum eliminates them entirely. The forging process compresses the grain structure into a continuous, aligned matrix that resists cracking, bending, and fatigue at a molecular level.
This is not marketing. This is metallurgy.
TESTING AND VALIDATION DATA
Numbers Don't Need Marketing.
CYBERTRUCK-SPECIFIC ENGINEERING
Decisions Made for One Vehicle.
Offset Engineering
The Cybertruck's steer-by-wire system transfers lateral forces through the wheel differently than a conventional steering rack. We modeled the steering geometry at full lock and across the air suspension travel range to select offsets that keep the spoke geometry within the brake caliper clearance envelope at every position — not just static ride height.
Spoke Profile for Brake Clearance
CT brake calipers are oversized for the platform's weight and performance requirements. Our spoke profile was modeled around the actual caliper geometry, including clearance for the heat shield and brake hose routing. Every spoke angle on every Xolaris design was validated for zero interference at all suspension travel positions.
Center Bore Precision
Xolaris wheels use a CT-specific center bore machined to within 0.02mm of the hub flange diameter. Hub-centric fitment eliminates the micro-vibration that occurs with adapters or oversized bore wheels — critical on a platform that transmits road input through steer-by-wire with no mechanical filtering.
Finish Durability
The CT's open wheel-well design exposes wheels to direct road debris, water spray, and thermal cycling from brake heat. Every Xolaris finish is validated through accelerated corrosion testing, thermal shock cycling, and impact resistance testing to ensure durability in this environment — not just in a sheltered showroom.
See the Engineering. On Your Cybertruck.
Request a personalized spec sheet for your CT variant, preferred size, and finish.