14 DAY TRIAL // If you're familiar with the Strati, you know that it is the world's first 3D printed car, and that it was completed back in 2014.
This amazing accomplishment has been further refined in the time since then, the Strati having seen improvements to the 3D printing technology that produces the frame.
Local Motors, the company that invented the car in the first place, saw this as the perfect time to finally start mass producing the vehicle.
That's why, during the 2015 edition of the North American International Auto Show, Local Motors has revealed that it plans to open two micro-factories that will produce Strati and other 3D printed cars for the masses.
One of the facilities will be located near the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Knoxville, while the other will be built in National Harbor right on the shore of the Potomac River, outside Washington DC.
The former will be more of a research center, while the latter will handle most of the mass production.
Local Motors is starting with micro-factories because they allow for the use of low cost tools and co-creation technologies, making it possible to create products quickly without having to pay for the construction and maintenance of a full-scale factory.
After these two are finished, another 98 will be opened over the course of the next 10 years, all around the world.
