The company says it plans to make a limited number of them in its own plant. Its founder portrays the company as being on the industry’s cutting edge.
“We’ve developed a sustainable path forward for the car industry that we believe will result in a renaissance in car manufacturing, with innovative, eco-friendly cars like Blade being designed and built in microfactories around the world,” says Kevin Czinger, CEO of Divergent Microfactories.
Czinger says the goal would be create teams around the world that could built the car in their own “microfactories.”
Local Motors, meanwhile, is taking its own approach.
CEO John “Jay” Rogers told USA TODAY last year that he plans to make 3D-printed cars made of carbon-fiber reinforced ABS plastic costing from $18,000 to $30,000. The roofless version he was showing, looking a bit like a carbon-fiber dune buggy, had 50 parts, instead of the thousands in modern cars.
A machine makes the chassis, body — even the dashboard — and the wheel, engine and controls are then attached. The process takes about 40 hours. It’s easy to make changes.
“If I want this car to be 10% bigger, I just click a button,” he says.
Article Appeared @http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2015/07/03/3d-printed-car-local-motors-divergent-microfactories/29641571/