Are 3D printed cars the future?

“Here,” says Lukas Czinger, digs out his access card and pushes open a steel door, “the magic happens.” The slight, blond man, 28 years old, steps into a factory building in western Los Angeles. In front of him are several cuboid machines the size of shipping containers – and each of them weighs between three and four million dollars. These are 3D printers from the Lübeck-based supplier SLM Solutions, in which up to twelve high-precision lasers build up individual layers of metal powder layer by layer in a glazed chamber and fuse them into components for a car. At this moment, a gearbox housing is created.