This article was first published in the April 2016 issue of WIRED magazine. Be the first to read WIRED's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
Small. This is how carmaker Local Motors thinks. In fact, it thinks micro - bringing together its community to co-create and build vehicles in its own microfactories. There are currently three, with the newest opening in Knoxville, Tennessee, and another due in Berlin this summer - changing how cars are produced, by 3D-printing them on a per-order basis.
The company has already earned WIRED's love for its crowd-designed, open-source Rally Fighter, which buyers co-build. But next year, it plans to launch what it calls the world's first digitally manufactured 3D-printed vehicle, at a US retail cost estimated at $53,000 (£36,000).
The LM3D Swim will be printed in the Knoxville microfactory using direct digital manufacturing (DDM), a form of 3D printing that builds directly from a CAD image file. In the first stage of the process, 3D printers create the body and frame of the car. A CNC (computer numerical control) machine then mills and smooths the exterior down to the exact desired shape. The last step is assembly, bolting on parts such as the seats, steering wheel and electric engine - all Local Motors' 3D cars will be electric.
The LM3D Swim is made of 80 percent ABS plastic and 20 percent carbon fibre, but it will still meet the safety standards of existing steel automobiles, according to Jay Rogers, CEO and co-founder. And unlike traditional car companies, this one will be agile enough to iterate in real time. "It's all about speed to market," says Rogers, 42. "We are increasing the pace of technology in an industry that has produced vehicles the same way for 120 years." Whereas developing and marketing a new car typically takes up to seven years, the LM3D Swim took two months to create.
Rogers' military experience - he was stationed in Iraq to provide security for an area critical to the oil economy - encouraged him to start a car company that could move away from the sector's dependency on oil. The Rally Fighter was a traditional steel model whose design was crowdsourced from 35,000 submissions in 2009. This vehicle relied on Local Motors' microfactories and on-demand production, where they only built parts when the orders came in - a model Rogers exported to General Motors' home appliance startup FirstBuild (WIRED 12.15). But Rogers wanted to innovate with materials as well as manufacturing processes. As 3D-printing technology gradually became more affordable, he saw his opportunity to create new models of cars even faster, and at a much lower cost/
By contrast, the big manufacturers have to build en masse to make a viable business. "It's millions of dollars in tooling," says Rogers. "So you have to make 240,000 to 250,000 units a year and invest $640 million into one shape."
Printing cars on demand dramatically improves design flexibility. "You can print a car once, and if you don't like it, you can print a different design with no change in cost," says Rogers. It is in this spirit of experimentation that the company has moved to Berlin, where its next microfactory will test different versions of 3D-printed cars, focusing on low-speed neighbourhood electric vehicles (NEVs). "When we thought about how to grow the vehicular ecosystem we found that Berlin is a dense city, one that is very technologically enabled, making it a logical place to put down our first footprint in Europe," explains Rogers. He believes that NEVs, small electric cars intended for city streets, are one answer to urban congestion.
Another advantage over a typical car: these ones can be constantly renewed. LM3D owners can continuously update every part, recycling the materials and effectively creating a new vehicle. Rogers believes this rapid production model is exactly what the auto industry needs, as the car is especially suited to dense cities such as Berlin. "Consider Uber's effect on a city - you've got more of the same old cars, plus Uber's, so congestion gets worse," says Rogers. "What we are talking about is changing the vehicles themselves - changing the hardware, not just the app that calls the hardware."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
