World's first 3D-printed car' to go on sale in 2016

Local Motors, the Arizona-based technology company behind the "world's first 3D-printed car", has announced that it will begin taking pre-orders for the vehicles in the spring of 2016, with manufacturing and delivery expected in early 2017.

The company wowed the automotive industry at the SEMA trade event in Las Vegas last year, by live-printing the world's first 3D-printed car, known as the Strati.

Now it is moving into the intensive testing and development phases, which will culminate with a road-ready series of cars known as LM3D Swim, built using 3D-printing techniques

Debuting at the SEMA show this year, the LM3D Swim was designed by Kevin Lo, a Local Motors community member who won the company’s Project Redacted challenge, which aims to identify designs for the next generation of 3D-printed cars.

The winning design was chosen by community votes and a judging panel that included former Tonight Show host Jay Leno and SEMA vice president of vehicle technology John Waraniak.

Roughly 75 per cent of the LM3D Swim is 3D-printed, including nearly all of the body panels and the chassis. The body panels can be printed in a variety of customised shapes and placed on top of the chassis, so cars could look radically different but be built on the same platform.

Local Motors engineers used software developed by Siemens to model the car, and SABIC, a maker of thermoplastic material solutions, provided the materials to build the body.

The company hopes to eventually make about 90 per cent of the car using 3D-printing..

Local Motors also worked with IBM to integrate technology that supports interactions between the 3D-printed vehicles, their drivers and the outside environment, resulting in increased safety and efficiency in traffic, according to the company.

“In the past few months our engineers have moved from only a rendering to the car you see in front of you today,” Local Motors chief executive Jay Rogers told the crowd at SEMA.

“We are thrilled to begin taking orders on 3D-printed cars next year.”

The LM3D Swim is expected to sell for $53,000 (£35,000). Early birds will be able to place a deposit on a LM3D via a crowdfunding campaign, expected to launch in the second quarter of 2016.

Local Motors plans to release several new models in the LM3D series throughout 2016, while pursuing federal crash testing and highway certifications.

All cars in the LM3D series will be built at a new Local Motors microfactory now under construction in Knoxville, Tennessee, which is slated for completion by the end of 2015.

The company also reportedly has plans for a motorcycle, an electric-powered "drift trike" and a 6.2-litre V8 powered desert dune buggy.