3D printing is revolutionizing everything, from robots to prosthetic hands. And now you can print your very own car. Jim Kor, the engineering brain behind Urbee 2, wants to make this dream of 3D printer assembly lines a reality. No sparks flying and heavy machinery, but a “warehouse of plastic-spraying printers”, churning out “light, cheap and highly efficient automobiles.”

The Urbee 2 will be the first in the next generation of urban runabouts and could,

Revolutionize parts manufacturing while creating a cottage industry of small-batch automakers intent on challenging the status quo.

Urbee 2’s light weight it will drastically reduce petrol consumption, and designers are also able to focus more on “optimal automobile physics.” Whatever THAT means! Nerds!

Kidding, this is awesome.

The Urbee 2 is a three wheeled, two passenger vehicle “printed” at an on-demand 3D printing facility, RedEye. Assembly of the vehicle was frighteningly easy. Kor simply uploaded the plan of a given part – let’s say a bumper – and in a few hundred hours the automated printers had fabricated the bumper. Ducts are drawn into the design plans, so there is no need for nuts and bolts in order to attach them, which in theory just adds unwanted weight to the car and increases petrol usage. Kor said:

The thesis we’re following is to take small parts from a big car and make them single large pieces.

There is however, one question that relates to the parts being made into one large piece, what if that piece breaks? Would you then need to replace the entire part? You probably would.

The original price of the Urbee 2 was set at $50 000 (R440 000).

Kor has already received 14 orders.

[Source: Wired]