The future has finally arrived; we haven’t seen any flying cars or a robot revolution, but just recently, we have taken our first look at the world’s first 3D printed car. This 3D printed car named Strati was unveiled this week at the Detroit auto show. It sounds unbelievable, but you maybe able to drive a 3D printed car later this year. This plastic car will be available to the public for a reasonable price. Local Motors, the creator of the Strati, may have shown us a little bit of what the future of the automotive industry may look like.

This was developed when Local Motors took on the challenge of building a 3D car live on the internet. The car is made from 212 layers of ABS plastic reinforced with carbon fibre. It currently takes approximately 44 hour to print the car, but developers hope to cut down the time to 24 hours. Inside the car is an electric engine, automatic, single-speed transmission and can reach a top speed of 50mph. Obviously not all parts could be printed. Since the Strati is a very unique car, it is currently awaiting clearance by US vehicle standards authorities.

Local Motors intends to have more than 750 vehicles on the market. The price is set for in between $18000-$30000The first batch of 3D-printed cars will come out of the microfactory and will be located in National Harbor. These 3D Printed cars will not come out of large factories, rather they will be produced in places that can output items on a much smaller and more local scale called Microfactories. These microfactories will produce less waste, have lower distribution costs, and can get items to the market faster and provide jobs for the local area. Within the next 10 years, Local Motors plans to build 100 microfactories around the world.

The use of 3D printing to make cars could greatly affect how we buy cars and other goods. With Local Motors almost being able to make a car in a single day, it would be hard for other car companies to compete with them. It would be also be difficult for most car companies to give the same price as the Strati for brand new cars. No one really know if the people will buy into the world’s first 3D car; however, even if they do not dominate the car market, they will have changed it forever.