Consumers in China will be able to buy mass-produced, 3D-printed electric cars for under $10,000 by Q2 2019.
The Italian company X Electrical Vehicle (XEV) will team up with Polymaker, a manufacturer of 3-D printing materials, to make the LSEV, which XEV claims will be the first mass-produced 3D-printed car. The company says it has already received more than 7,000 orders for the cars from the Italian postal service and from ARVAL, a vehicle-leasing service.
The cars top out at 70 kilometers per hour (a little under 45 MPH) and have a range of 150 kilometers (just over 90 miles). A designer for XEV told South China Morning Post that China was the biggest market for their cars, and the company is in talks to set up a production line on the mainland.
The cars reportedly take around three days to manufacture. Everything visible on the car except the windows, chassis, and seats is 3D printed.