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DETROIT – Forget Tesla’s electric vehicles and Google’s self-driving cars – a little-known company called Local Motors Inc. really wants to function as the disruptor that turns the auto industry on its head.
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Local Motors’ business model is really radical that it’s hard to comprehend at first: crowd-sourced, 3D-printed electric vehicles built-in local microfactories the size of grocery stores, then sold directly to consumers.
According to Justin Fishkin, Local Motors’ chief strategy officer, the car industry is fundamentally unchanged in the days of Henry Ford – cars are still built on assembly lines in giant factories, then shipped all over the world traded in dealerships – and it is time for you to throw that model out the window.
“We think that to make local big again, you need to make big things locally,” Fishkin said in an interview around the sidelines from the North American International Auto Show in Detroit this month. “That’s the near future.”
Founded in 2007 in Phoenix, Local Motors developed the unusual idea of crowd-sourced vehicles. What this means is anyone – suppliers, engineers, even your average gearhead – can contribute to the vehicle’s design in return for a royalty.
The initial result of this was the Rally Fighter, an off-road vehicle that starts at US$99,900 and would look right at home in Mad Max: Fury Road. Buyers are invited to sign up in the production, a procedure that Local Motors calls the “Build Experience.”
The company plans to go much further into uncharted territory using its next vehicle, which has begun crash-testing and is expected to hit the industry by early 2017. Dubbed LM3D, it will likely be the earth’s first 3D-printed car series, a strategy which will keep capital costs low and permit cars to be “recycled.”
An LM3D concept car, known as the Swim, was revealed in Las Vegas in November, although Local Motors says this isn’t what the end product may be like. The final price tag was not set, however the suggested list price inside a November press release was US$53,000.
Customers can’t customize their vehicles, a minimum of away from first, since any major changes may affect the LM3D’s crash-test certification, said David Woessner, Local Motors’ general manager for Detroit.
However, Fishkin promises that there will be substantially more flexibility for consumers than you would find at your average dealership.
“We expect you’ll have the ability to walk in, pick one of several car bodies, choose your powertrain, choose your choices and then we’ll allow it to be while you wait or we’ll make it to be able to come back the following day and pick it up,” Fishkin said.
“Then in 2 months should there be a much better battery out or if you have a child and need a back seat, we can strip the constituents off and recycle them to your next car.”
This is going to be possible because of Local Motors’ microfactory model, which envisions a series of 50,000-square-foot plants – concerning the size an average grocery store – that will build, service and recycle vehicles locally, around the globe, in small volumes. These microfactories will also act as points of sale, or what Fishkin calls “experiential dealerships.”
The first LM3D cars is going to be built at Local Motors’ existing microfactory in Knoxville, Tenn., but it plans to open 50 to 100 more within the next decade, including one in Berlin this year and the other either in Singapore or South Korea by early 2017.
The company is also “very eagerly” taking a look at possible locations in Canada, Fishkin said, adding that Calgary would be near the top of his list. “We will be in Canada for sure at some stage in the near future, it is simply unclear when and where yet,” he explained.
The idea of a 3D-printed car may raise some drivers’ eyebrows, but Fishkin says safety won’t be a problem.
“People tell us, how are you likely to convince anyone to get in a 3D-printed, plastic car?” he explained.
“It’s fair that people have questions, but those questions is going to be answered before we attempt to market this.”
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The car isn’t really made from plastic – it’s thermoplastic reinforced with graphite, a material that’s widely used within the aerospace industry – and Woessner said Local Motors is dealing with the U.S. government along with other partners to develop even stronger materials that can be used within the 3D-printing process.
“We’re doing some of the leading research in the world on materials and material strength and material structures, and down the line we believe that when the technology has been proven and also the materials are developed, they’ll prove to be even safer than currently exists,” Woessner said.
The LM3D’s components – the parts which are sourced from outside suppliers, and not 3D-printed in-house – can come from the 3 companies in both the tech and auto industries.
“There’s this Detroit versus Silicon Valley thing that everybody’s referring to in automotive, and we naturally bridge both,” Fishkin said.
