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Italian rider Francesco Furlani has completed over 4,500-kilometer journey from Italy to Nordkapp, Norway’s North Cape, driving a three-wheeled Piaggio Ape TM 703 fitted with a camper body built entirely through large-format 3D printing. The shell weighs around 70 kilograms, compared with roughly 200 kilograms for a comparable fiberglass structure, a 130-kilogram difference that determined whether the trip was possible at all. On a vehicle as payload-constrained as the Ape, that margin was what allowed room for a bed, a kitchen, batteries, and food and water supplies without pushing the vehicle over its limit.
Two Italian companies made the build possible. Material and manufacturing startup Nugae developed the material and provided engineering support for the shell, which was printed by a