Dassault Systèmes Supports Local Motors’ Drive to Design and Manufacture the Next Version

Leading-Edge Co-Creation Innovator Selects the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform as In-House Design Solution for its 2012 Rally Fighter

WALTHAM, Mass. and CHANDLER, Ariz. – September 6, 2012 - Dassault Systèmes (Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA), the 3DEXPERIENCE Company, world leader in 3D design, 3D Digital Mock Up and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), today announced that co-creation automotive design innovator Local Motors has selected the company’s 3DEXPERIENCE platform for the ongoing internal refinement of its 2012 Rally Fighter, a sleek, 50-state street-legal off-road vehicle that pushes the automotive design envelope while providing rugged durability.  The Rally Fighter design was created through the use of crowd-sourced design/co-creation inputs, with detailed engineering completed with the use of Dassault Systèmes’ CATIA application. 

This crowd-developed, design-to-manufacturing process is a new manufacturing paradigm pioneered by Local Motors and a game-changer for the automotive industry. Through its online community of more than 20,000 designers, engineers, fabricators and enthusiasts, Local Motors drives automotive innovation through crowd-powered collaboration, leveraging their collective knowledge base in order to develop the most optimal solution.

Local Motors designers used the CATIA application because of its powerful user experience including the ability to develop interior design geometry based on packaging studies, kinematic suspension analysis, finite element analysis, and development of tooling geometry as well as its advanced composite capabilities all within a single user experience, or ‘design in context’.

“Our mission is to lead the next generation of crowd-powered automotive manufacturing, design and technology in order to enable the creation of game changing vehicles,’ said Jay Rogers, CEO and co-founder of Local Motors. “With its 3DEXPERIENCE platform and focus on the customer experience, Dassault Systèmes was the ideal partner for Local Motors as we continue to refine the 2012 Rally Fighter.”

Al Bunshaft, managing director, North America, Dassault Systèmes said, “We are pleased that Local Motors has selected our 3DEXPERIENCE platform from among the solutions available as the Rally Fighter vehicle design solution. Complex vehicle design, especially in collaboration with a large ecosystem of innovators, requires flexibility in order to incorporate disparate design innovations, and at this, our CATIA application excels.  Local Motors has used this application to conduct line-of-sight analysis, packaging studies and analysis of the Rally Fighter that was not possible with other software.”

Dassault Systèmes’ CATIA application has been at the forefront of the transportation and mobility sector, providing cutting-edge, proven solutions that meet the needs of OEMs such as Ford, BMW, and Jaguar Land Rover as well as their suppliers.  A new generation of vehicle development companies, such as flying car maker Terrafugia, Tesla Motors and Fisker Automotive are increasingly leveraging Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE platform to realize the latest vehicle innovations.

“Local Motors is an important business partner for Dassault Systèmes as we move forward with our strategy to deliver the leading industry solution experiences to our customers around the world,” said Monica Menghini, executive vice president, Industry and Marketing, Dassault Systèmes. “Our 3DEXPERIENCE Platform is ideally suited for Local Motors’ ongoing in-house design of the Rally Fighter.”