Local Motors 3-D prints electric roadster in 44 hours

All the car companies now have these 3d printers. It will really cut the cost of new product introductions if the car companies management uses the tools properly. Unfortunately there is a lot of old school management that does not let the engineers run as fast as they can.

For plug-ins, we see the tale of different approaches. The fisker karma was done really fast, and it turned out too fast. Quality problems were missed. The tesla is far simpler than the karma, but it seemed to be done as fast as possible given normal engineering and quality checks. It was done 4 years after anoucement, but full production took anouther 6 months as supplier quality problems and initial production problems were worked out. 4.5 years. Tesla didn't have the deep pockets of a nissan or gm though. Now with the better state of battery cells, and with more money, I would say 3 years is reasonable rapid development. That is about the speed toyota was able to do the first prius, but since then things have gotten slower at toyota. The current prius update is taking 6.5 years

 

Although I'm not in the automotive industry, I can attest to this at the corporation where I work as an engineer. The thrust is more behind cost reduction, and less on development. Even recently, a trip I was scheduled for in Germany to collaborate on a new design was "postponed." This would have been a very positive venture for the company. Instead, I am forced to continue my communication via phone and email. This was due to a need for "reducing costs."

Engineering is always the first to see reductions, cuts, scale-backs, postponements, etc...

However, I see several customer service/sales associates are still going on their trip down south for some "friendly visits."

Sorry, I needed to vent.

 

While some ceos deserve that, I don't think its Jack Welch Jr. ge's stock price went up over 40x, and revenue went up around 5x in the two decades he ran the company until he anounced retirement (then stock fell and fell worse when he no longer ran the company). A great deal of the growth was through acquisition, but GE's engineering was excellent in many fields.

A ceo like rick wagoner is who you want to look at. Under his tenure GM lost 90% of its market value, lost market share, and went from profitable to unprofitable.

 

follow the money...

 

Oh beautiful, they designed a roll bar where the head projects above the safety cage (see picture). I had a guy working with me who rolled on an interstate and survived because that wasn't the case. And there is no front roll protection in the windshield frame area.

Why not just drive a motorcycle? My neighbor has a $1.3M bill from doing that (not including the $50k for the helo flight to the hospital) and he never left the road and didn't hit anything.

I like my crash protection.

 

Was the neighbor's motorcycle limited to 40mph?
It's concept for pubiicity. The ones they plan to sell will hopefully give safety more thought.

Their first product, the Rally Fighter, costs $99,900 and you get to help build it.
Local Motors Rally Fighter

 

It sounds like you have a personal bone to pick with how ge management treated your group. I really have no opinion since I have no experience, so I'll take your word for it.

Looking at the sale though, it seems like in 1993, it was a good move for ge. The gulf war was over, and we didn't know we would be in iraq forever yet. Space was stagnant, with the big programs behind us, but the shuttle and satelights to service. Seems like it was a good move to sell the division for $3B, while keeping more profitable parts of the corporation. The stock market did think so So I would say that selling the division was good for ge, but I doubt welch cared much about what happened to the people post ge. That became martin marietta, then lockheeds problem, to either manage them bettor, or IIRC cut their numbers a great deal. At least cuts were during growth in the economy.

Compare that to Wagoner. You take over the biggest car company in the world. One of the first moves you make is to kill a predicessors dream, the EV1 (this he admits as his worst mistake). You hire bob lutz. You heavily invest in fuel cell research, but neglect hybrids, throwing out vehicles at a price point where gm could claim no one wants hybrids, but.... there was toyota. Instead of shedding unprofitable divisions as welch did at ge, wagoner kept gm together as if magically SUVs would be profitable enough to stem all the red ink. Under his leadership market value fell 90%, and it directly led to the bankrupcy.

 

I would say that is a beutiful thing from the cool new prototyping tools. This car was printed and machined in 3 days. You can walk around it and decide if things like the roll cage is inadequate (it looks that way to me too), you can even drop it in a wind tunnel. Then you can go to the computer, modify the design, and have a new one to compare it to quickly.

 

Sometimes I'll see a little convertible being driven by a guy whose head sticks out above the top of the windshield frame. Is that the car designer's fault or the driver's?

 

Great for R&D, but it sounds like Local Motors is planning sell cars, or maybe NEVs, built this way from the article. Not any details really on it though. Would printing a plastic body car be better one assembled from traditionally formed plastic pieces for the final product? Can see perhaps it having better structural integrity, and maybe costs savings on a short production run car.

 

I don't really understand their business plan, but they seem to mainly assemble parts from other vehicles adding a few of their own.
Local Motors Makes Cars The C.O.O.L. Way

Printed parts or plastic parts shouldn't be used for structural or safety system. We see Local Motors making an off road vehicle, and now this slow speed vehicle so it doesn't have to qualify. Certainly plastic bodies on safe frames is a proven technique. Printed panels can change the look, or be used to customize the interior. One 3D prining technique I have seen is for printed material to be used to make a mold for CFRP or metal. The materials used to print are continuously improving, so maybe in the future you could 3d print a unibody and panels for a car.

Here is how nissan racing is using the tech to prototype some parts and to actually make some others.
Nissan 3D Printing Car Parts for Racing - 3D Printing Industry