How Kevin Czinger is changing the automotive assembly game with 3D printing

21C V Max sets itself apart from any other car in its echelon by its creation process. Images: Josh Welton

Man and machine working together to create a better future: This idea has fascinated me for quite some time, proven by a series of sculptures I’ve made riffing on that very concept. With a skilled human guiding advanced artificial intelligence, the ceiling is almost immeasurably higher than on their own.

Czinger is a name I’ve only recently become familiar with, especially the Czinger 21C hypercar. Supercar, hypercar, exotic, ultra-high performance, or whatever you want to call it, the 21C sets itself apart from any other car in its echelon by its creation process.

And it all starts with a man named Kevin Czinger.

Growing up wrenching on cars and bikes with his mechanic-minded brothers gave him the hands-on, blue-collar experience that the best engineers and designers usually have. The man even played football at Yale University in the ’80s, setting school records for single season and career sack totals. He was named All-Ivy League and won conference MVP as a defensive lineman while leading Yale to back-to-back conference titles. He’s had a competitive fire and extreme work ethic from an early age.

Then there’s his post-Yale career. Here’s how a Yale alumni profile describes Czinger:

“Czinger’s career journey…has taken a winding pathway: federal prosecutor, an executive at Goldman Sachs, entrepreneur-in-residence at a venture capital firm, co-founder of an electric car and battery manufacturing company.”

These accolades don’t even include his time in the Marines; his latest venture, Divergent; or his second car company Czinger. The latter two are why I’m writing about him now.

So, what is Divergent and what does it do? The company website sums it up best:

“Divergent has invented a complete manufacturing solution to address system level challenges. The Divergent Adaptive Production System (DAPS) is a complete software hardware solution designed to replace traditional vehicle manufacturing. To make the complex simple, it is a complete modular digital factory for complex structures. Given a set of digital requirements as input, the machine automatically computationally engineers, additively manufactures, and assembles any complex structure. The system is able to move seamlessly between manufacturing different vehicle models.”

In basic terms, Czinger developed a program to engineer and fabricate the most robust and most efficient assemblies within parameters. With 3D printing, there are no restrictions on how a part is shaped, whereas stamping or welding a part can limit what is possible regarding design, materials, and fabrication. There are also wasted materials, wasted effort, and added weight. With Divergent, engineers assist AI in designing the ideal parts, ideal sub-assembly, and, ultimately, the ideal car.

“It became clear that what they're working on has implications far beyond one ultra-high-performance car. Rather, their goal is nothing short of revolutionizing how vehicles across the spectrum are designed and manufactured,” said Alex Leanse of Motortrend.com.

While attending The Quail, a motorsports show in Monterey, Calif., this August, I saw the three Czinger models up close: the 21C, the 21C V Max, and the Hyper GT. Czinger has talked about how he’s modeled his company after Lockheed’s Skunk Works team, and it is clear the aircraft inspiration didn’t stop at workforce structuring.

The 3D-printed Czinger 21C motor.

The 21C’s interior layout is straight-up inspired by a fighter jet with inline seating for the driver and one passenger. Unlike many low-volume, high-performance cars that borrow drivetrains from other manufacturers, the 21C has a high revving small-displacement twin-turbo V8, plus a two-electric motor hybrid system developed in-house. With carbon fiber and exotic alloys, all 3D-printed and fitted to perfection, it is difficult to look away from these masterpieces.

While the flashy trio of these seven-figure cars earn initial attention, the fabrication process deserves even more. And you better believe this new way of building cars can be scaled up. Divergent is now under contract with Aston Martin to generate assemblies.

And bringing this type of manufacturing to the masses appears to be Czinger’s larger goal, as he goes on to explain in the Yale alumni profile.

“We’ve had a revolution in software—with a small team and objective-oriented software, we can code anything. Now we will have a hardware revolution that combines our ability to use software for generative design with the ability to express that design in the real world of atoms by printing it. Our planet will not survive without this revolution in manufacturing as our current vehicle manufacturing system is economically and environmentally broken.

Electric vehicles are a good example. We think that we can build a large, heavy vehicle that requires large amounts of energy to operate and have it be green because it is electric and there is no tailpipe! That is crazy. The two are fundamentally, mutually exclusive.

As the developing world increases its demand for vehicles, we are about to lock ourselves into infrastructure that will compound environmental damage at a level that is unimaginable. It took us 115 years to build two billion vehicles. In the next thirty-five years or so, we will build four billion more vehicles (six billion when looked at from a mass equivalent) with all of the associated damage-compounding infrastructure and fuel use (gas and/or electricity). We need a way to manufacture that is much more capital, material, and energy efficient than in the past one hundred years. We need safe, lightweight vehicles that use less fuel (gas and/or electricity).”

Czinger is using a 120-year-old automotive playbook to elicit change and move the industry forward: Garner attention to your methods and technology by crafting a ridiculous, over-the-top showstopper, then sell the decision makers and financiers on your process.

Time will tell if it works. But my money is on Kevin Czinger.

3D Printed Czinger car parts.