At this year's CEATEC, Japan's largest consumer electronics show, Honda showed an example of its so-called Micro Commuter electric car with a body that's been constructed using additive manufacturing.

The range of available materials is one of the key hurdles to adoption for industrial 3D printing. 3D printing is being rapidly adopted by product manufacturers all around the world, but it still can't compete with many other manufacturing techniques with respect to material diversity.