Say Hello To The World's First 3D-Printed Electric Car: The Local Motors Strati

Local Motors, a community of designers and engineers, has proved the viability of its 3D-printed business model by creating a complete electric car, from scratch, in just 44 hours.

The Strati is an electric vehicle that uses a revolutionary 3D printing process that allows it to become a viable mass production model in the automotive industry.

The car is made from one solid piece, which took 44 hours to create, before a team of Local Motors engineers then placed mechanical components like the battery, motor, wiring and suspension (including parts sourced from the Renault Twizy) into the chassis.

The innovation comes in the form of BAAM - that’s Big Area Additive Manufacturing. The machine can rapidly create complex shapes from carbonfibre-reinforced plastic, and its large size means it can create objects like a car with ease. It is already at the point where it can be used in the final production phase, which will begin shortly.

Local Motors runs a global network of micro-factories which act as a hub for the design and production of these new vehicles, with the community having a huge say in the direction the company goes - the Strati was designed and voted for online.

It’s great to see an automotive company embracing the power of 3D printing, which has already proved an excellent way of providing inexpensive advancements to a number of industries. For a start, with micro-factories across the globe, expensive and environmentally unfriendly shipping is massively reduced. It’ll be interesting to see if consumers trust these innovative vehicles when they go on sale soon.