Local Motors is breaking all the rules of automobile design and manufacturing. The start-up, based in Wareham, MA has developed a business model that incorporates crowdsourcing design, distributed manufacturing, and environmentally-efficient automobile models.
Local Motors Company Background
Local Motors was founded by Jeff Jones and Jay Rogers as students. They used grant money to research and create the Local Motors concept, resulting in a business plan that took top prize in the Pitch for Change business plan competition in 2007. By the fall of 2007, Local Motors was a business entity, and had secured $2M in funding. Jones and Rogers began building the company with three goals in mind:
- Create an open-source engineering community
- Create an actual vehicle
- Get that vehicle to market
Local Motors opened its facility in Wareham, MA and began to build alliances with suppliers and experts worldwide. The company now has eight employees and diverse boards of industry and academic advisers.
Online Community Design Competitions
The company has developed an extensive online community of designers who contribute to the development of current car models and individual components. The company has been sponsoring a variety of design competitions, from individual components for the Rally Fighter to vehicles for Detroit entrepreneurs. Winning designs get prize money and exposure on the Local Motors web site. Some other prizes include design software packages or the designer's name on all of his winning parts that are fabricated.
Local Motors recently closed a competition to create an electric car design specifically for San Francisco, with the winner to be announced in the near future. Additional contests are planned for other major US cities and specifications.
Current Local Motors Models
Local Motors has begun taking reservations for its Rally Fighter model. This model design was submitted to Local Motors by winning designer Sangho Kim, and embraces the curves and ruggedness of Baja racing vehicles. The Rally Fighter is proposed to have a gas mileage of 36 mpg. The body consists of fiberglass and carbon composite materials, and each model will be coated in a custom car skin, making each vehicle unique. The Rally Fighter is powered by a BMW twin-turbo inline-six engine that is expected to output 265 horsepower. The initial Rally Fighter models will be built in Arizona at a still-to-be-built micro-factory.
The company turns the traditional design and manufacturing process on its head, taking advantage of hundreds of talented designers and engineers to develop cars that have, according to their web site, "Everything you want, and nothing you don't."
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