XEV Launches 3D Printed Electric Car on Kickstarter
Called the Yoyo, the new car promises limitless customizability in a compact European city-car form.
Turin-based XEV is looking to make good on its campaign to bring a mass-produced 3D printed car to market. The company is using Kickstarter to, um, kickstart the first wave of orders for the Yoyo, with backers in line for their car – a $5,999 pledge – come December 2020.
Live since the beginning of December 2019, it doesn’t appear to be going so well. Of its 500,000€ goal, XEV has (at the time of writing) netted less than 100,000€ in pledges. The campaign closes on February 6, 2020.
A bid to shake up automotive production using a line of custom large format printers, post-processing tools, and software, XEV’s long gestated X-EV project has surfaced with a new name in the Yoyo. Looking a great deal like that other ultra-compact city car, the Smart, the Yoyo benefits from a modular bodywork and trim. Allowing for possibly endless customizability, the 3D printed components simply attach to an off-the-shelf chassis and electric drivetrain.
A sizzle reel on the Kickstarter page shows the possibility for corporate branding and even structural changes tailored to business use, too. Think delivery variants with a cargo bay.
A claimed range of 150 km on a single charge puts the Yoyo in league with the Smart ForTwo EV under optimal conditions. The expected list price is approximately 10,000€, considerably less than the ~20,000€ starting price of an all-electric equivalent from Smart.
So is it destined to fail? This late in the campaign, perhaps. But we’re watching with interest to see what comes next.
(Lead image source: XEV)
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