Nowadays, the application of 3D printing is more suitable for the design field and automotive research and development stage, as well as small batch production of a single piece.  For example, the development of vehicle muds model, body, chassis, synchronizer and other parts, as well as the single production of rubber and plastic parts.

In the design field, automobile manufacturers can apply the rapid prototyping characteristics of 3D printing to the research and development of automobile shape design. Compared to traditional hand-made clay models, 3D printing can transform 3D drawings into real objects more accurately and in less time, which is more helpful to improve the production efficiency of automobile design. At present, many automobile manufacturers have begun to use 3D printing technology in design, such as Mercedes Benz design center.

In parts and components, 3D printing can also quickly produce complex products.  The development of auto parts in the traditional automobile manufacturing industry often requires a long time of research and development, testing.  From research and development to testing stage also need to make parts mold, not only long time, and high cost.  When a problem occurs, it takes the same long cycle to fix parts.  As it happens, 3D printing can make complex parts quickly. Therefore，when something goes wrong with the test, people can just modify the 3D file and re-print it to test it again.  In other words, 3D printing technology makes the development of future parts cheaper and more efficient.