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**LOCAL MOTORS: A DISRUPTIVE FORCE IN AUTOMOTIVE INNOVATION** LOCAL MOTORS was a trailblazing American automaker founded in 2007 in Phoenix, Arizona, and ceased operations in January 2022. Famed for upending traditional car-making, the company leveraged open-source design, community co-creation and distributed micro-manufacturing to bring vehicles from sketch to street in record time. *Fast Company* named it one of the “World’s Most Innovative Companies”; HBS turned its story into a case study. ### Open Community & Distributed Manufacturing - **Crowd-sourced design**: A global online community of enthusiasts, designers and engineers submitted and voted on concepts. The first car, **Rally Fighter**, was penned by design student Sangho Kim and selected by popular vote. All files were released under **CC-BY-NC-SA** licences to encourage non-commercial remixing. - **Micro-factories**: Small-footprint plants used 3-D printing and modular assembly for low-volume, market-responsive production. Sites in Berlin, Toronto and elsewhere built the self-driving shuttle **Olli**, compressing the traditional 5-7-year cycle to **18 months** and slashing development cost to **USD 3 M**—one-tenth the industry norm. ### Tech Breakthroughs & Products - **3-D printing pioneer**: In 2014 LOCAL MOTORS unveiled **Strati**, the first fully 3-D printed car, completed in **44 hours** with only **50 parts** versus the usual 30,000. **Olli** pushed the envelope further, with **80 %** of its components printed and flexible materials such as NinjaFlex used for bumpers and seats. - **Autonomous & cognitive**: Partnering with **IBM**, the team embedded **Watson** AI for natural-language interaction, emotion detection and dynamic routing. Pilots ran in Las Vegas, Berlin and university campuses, showcasing real-time diagnostics and conversational infotainment. ### Collaborative Ecosystem - **Cross-industry network**: Projects with Airbus, GE, BMW and DARPA exported open-source methods to aerospace and energy, including urban-air-mobility design challenges. - **Lean supply chain**: Siemens, Techmer PM and others ensured printed parts met OEM quality. A **zero-inventory** model—materials ordered only after customer purchase—cut carrying costs and waste. ### Democratising Mobility & Sustainability LOCAL MOTORS sought to **democratise vehicle creation**, letting individuals or SMEs co-develop and even hand-assemble their cars, forging emotional ownership. 3-D printing minimised scrap; the electric **Olli** produced zero tail-pipe emissions, while local production reduced logistics energy. ### Challenges & Closure Despite acclaim, high per-part print costs, slow autonomy commercialisation and limited demand for niche models strained finances. The company closed in 2022 when funding dried up. ### Legacy LOCAL MOTORS proved that **community-driven, tech-forward micro-manufacturing** can exist inside an industry dominated by giants. Its ethos—*“We don’t just build vehicles; we build a mobility future everyone can own”*—continues to inspire 3-D printing, distributed production and open-innovation initiatives worldwide.