Singapore Students Build 1st 3D-Printed Concept Car

on February 6, 2015 at 3:44 pm

If you give some students a 3D-printer, some solar panels and about a year’s worth of time, what do you get? A solar powered race car! Engineering students from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) have built 3D-printed solar electric car prototype, the NTU Venture 8 (NV8), and plan to race it in Shell’s Eco Marathon Asia event later this month. In the beginning, the team was looking at a supercar design, but decided to go with “a sensible cute micro-car with vertical opening doors” that can run at up to 60 km/h (37 mph).

The students said that the vehicle “is Singapore’s first and probably Asia’s first 3D-printed concept car,” with the cockpit fabricated from 150 lighweight plastic parts. The design maximizes interior space thanks to a strong honeycomb design, and its slightly c-thru skin “is a sight to behold,” according to the students. The NV8 was printed in part at NTU’s recently opened $5 million Additive Manufacturing Center, built to allow students and staff to pursue 3D-printing research projects.

While the NV8 will run in the “urban concept” category, the team also developed a carbon fiber three-wheeler to race for the grand prototype prize.