Local Motors’ 3D-printed electric car to become a reality in Chicago

By Stephen Edelstein March 17, 2014

local motors to build 3d printed electric car rally fighter

Local Motors doesn’t like to do things the normal way.

The car company based around an online community of consumer-designers is once again trying to shake up the manufacturing process with a 3D-printed electric car.

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Local says this will be the first 3D-printed electric car, and it plans to build it right on the floor of the 2014 International Manufacturing Technology Show in Chicago this September.

While it’s not the first to conceive of a 3D-printed car, Local seems like the ideal company to harness the technology.

The main advantage of 3D printing in an automotive context is flexibility. Since tooling won’t have to be created for individual parts, changes can be made more easily to the design.

This plays right into Local’s community-based method. The company seeks input from potential customers, who can vote on different aspects of the design. It worked pretty well for the Rally Fighter off-road performance vehicle (pictured above) that’s currently in Local’s catalog.

The lack of tooling could also speed up the transition from design to production, and give designers more leeway.

Of course, Local won’t build its car by feeding spools of plastic into a desktop Replicator.

The company plans to use a hybrid additive/subtractive machine that’s been demonstrated at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. It can print out an object (addition) like a normal 3D printer, but also has a router attachment that can remove material (subtraction) like a machine tool for more precise shaping.

The exact shape that will come out of that machine is still up in the air.

Local says the car will be “purpose-built for the urban transportation needs of Chicago” but hasn’t revealed any specific information about it. That will have to wait until the 2014 International Manufacturing Technology Show, which runs September 8-13.

Perhaps then we’ll see if the future of the car will come out of a printer, or if robots and stamping machines will always reign supreme.

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Business upfront, 31-inch TV in the back. BMW’s electric i7 is a screening room on wheels

Front three quarter view of the 2023 BMW i7.

The BMW 7 Series has been the venerable German automaker’s flagship for more than 40 years, but with its latest redesign, BMW is taking things in a new — and electrifying — direction.
The 2023 BMW i7 xDrive60 (or i7 for short) is the first all-electric 7 Series in the model’s history. It’s positioned against electric luxury sedans like the Lucid Air, Tesla Model S, and the Mercedes-Benz EQS sedan, a longtime BMW rival. But BMW took a different approach with its electric chariot of the affluent.
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The new 7 Series — and by extension the i7 — is sure to prove controversial due to BMW’s new front-end styling, which combines a massive grille sure to stoke internet memes and odd-looking two-tiered headlights. The effect is exaggerated by an available blacked-out front-end treatment, which makes it look like parts are missing.
Those styling elements carry over from gasoline 7 Series models to the i7, as does the hulk-like body shell, which is abnormally tall for a sedan, requiring steps at the hood and rear bumper to blend them with the thick center section of the body. The i7 also retains a long protruding hood, which is necessary to house the engine in gasoline 7 Series models, but is just an affectation here.
BMW claims the i7 will appeal to buyers who want a traditional luxury sedan first and an EV second. To be fair, the i7 is much more conventional-looking than the streamlined Mercedes-Benz EQS sedan and Lucid Air, or the grille-less Tesla Model S. But some of that work has been undone by BMW’s unorthodox design choices in other areas, which may not appeal to traditionalists either.
The i7 is sure to prove controversial due to BMW's new front-end styling.