​3D printed cars

In this article I am going to tell you about another huge change that 3D printing is bringing into our lives. 3D printing is being experimented with in many industries these days. Automotive industry is the one I am going to direct your attention at today. Back in 2014 in a contest called International Manufacturing Technology Show 2014, first 3D printed car, named Strati, was created by, vehicle innovation company, Local Motors. Parts such as the engine, the battery and other electrical parts were not 3D printed, but with the use of cutting edge technologies the entire car was finished in just 44 hours, which is incredible by itself. The car is electrical and while the speed (40 mph or around 65km/h) and length that it can go at are not very impressive, this breakthrough by far is extremely important for the automotive industry and 3D printing.  

Another car that I am going to tell you about is the Shelby Cobra 56. This incredible machine was created using the looks of an over 50 years old classic. Along with polished looks the 3D printed diamond received new engine, battery, electronics and many more new features and it was build in around 6 weeks. Does this mean that we can see more 3D printed classics coming our way? With so many improvements it is debatable if they are going to be considered classics, but there can definitely be more.

Another car in the 3D-printed-cars family is Blade. Blade is the first 3D printed supercar. Blade is not completely 3D printed like the two mentioned above. It uses 3D printed aluminium nodes that are then joined together with carbon fiber tubing. This beast is capable of going from 0 to 100 km/h in just 2.2 seconds. Also, unlike the other two, this one runs on either gasoline or natural gas. I dare say it is extremely impressive vehicle considering it has 1/50 of the factory capital costs of other manufactured cars. Divregent Microfactories (DM) is planning on releasing the technology with which Blade was made to other teams who could create their own versions of the car and also plans on starting annual production of the supercar. 

Maybe some day we will be driving 3D printed cars cars made on demand the same way we order a 3D model from sites such as ours or in the way we can choose from what parts to build our personal computers. But there is still some time until those cars become mass produced. Meanwhile you could check our Motors and Transport category for some amazing models.