Can I submit more than 1 design to the competition?

Yes, you may submit as many designs as you like. As long as the design is yours and it fits the competition requirements, you are welcome to submit it.

How do I know Local Motors won't steal my designs and build a car without properly compensating me?

Local Motors intends to celebrate great design, and great designers. We have built this company and the competition rules around the protection of both Local Motors and the Local Motors Community. When we cease to respect designers, we will cease to exist. When you submit a design to Local Motors, you are giving us use of the design for the term of the contest, plus 90 days after. So you are allowing us to use your design to promote the website and to promote you. We can not build a car based on this design until you sign a contract saying so. Check out the Terms of Use. You will find this at the very bottom of the website. Rest assured you will not be taken advantage of. Our future depends on treating you like gold.

Can I post my competition submission in other places?

You may post your design competition submissions to your own portfolios. This includes your personal website as well as portfolio hosting sites. By participating in the Local Motors competition, you are pledging not to try and sell your design to other buyers. This means you may not submit the same design to the Local Motors competition and another competition at the same time. We do not want to fall in love with your design, only to find out that you no longer own it or it is no longer available.

Can I put my personal logo or "marque" on my design, or does it have to be the Local Motors logo?

The only logos we plainly state are not allowed in the competition are those of other car manufacturers. Remember, when you design a car for Local Motors you are also designing the Local Motors brand. That being said, you may put your own personal "marque", the Local Motors Logo, or both on your design.

Can I submit a design which previously won a different competition?

Yes, you may upload a design which previously won a non-Local Motors competition. This is assuming that by submitting to and winning said competition, you did not give away the rights to your design. All design submissions must be the property of the designer who is submitting said designs.

Can I submit designs to a Local Motors Competition that was previously entered into a Local Motors Competition, but did not win?

If the design is yours, and if it fits the competition requirements, then you are welcome to enter it in a Local Motors Competition.

How do I win?

As stated in the Competition Guidelines, Local Motors in its sole discretion reserves the right to choose the winner. Nonetheless, we most seriously take into consideration votes, comments, etc. in doing so. In all correspondence on this subject, we have made it clear that we let the opinion of the community lead our decision more than any other factor. That is a core belief of ours.

It is the spirit of this very FAQ to disclose our thinking, so that there is no guesswork or "invisible hand" when it comes to how winners are made. No one at Local Motors is engaged in any way in comparing one competition design against another. To be frank, we let the community do that, and we think you all do a better job of that than we ever could.

The limiting factor of any "anatomical" disclosure is that it permits "gamers" to set the odds unfairly in their favor. Therefore, to protect legitimacy, we maintain discretion of enough of the details of our analysis engine so as not to allow hijacking of a competition's results while still letting you know what makes a winner.

In summary, we subject the voting of the community to a methodical analysis to help us determine a winner and to remain consistent from one competition to the next.

In more detail, we subject every voter to an analytical engine so that we can analyze the effect of his/her vote on the community, process, creation, and sale of our vehicles. Said another way, we carefully analyze and account for each person who makes a vote based on a range of factors critical to our business. We never attempt to adjust, edit, alter, or change the actual vote that someone casts for a design.

Each of these following "user" factors cause us to react to the way we think about a user's preference and therefore influence our choice of competition winners: Whether or not one is -
 -a winner of an LM competition
 -a buyer of an LM vehicle or product
 -a user who is "local" to the competition region
 -a dedicated commenter/critiquer
 -willing to vote someone's work up to the Design Wall or is someone on the Design Wall oneself
 -a visitor to a physical LM location
 -offering unique submissions to the site (Information about oneself, profile pics, checkups, build pics, entries, avatars, etc)
etc.

Though this list is not exhaustive, it gives a good sense of the type of factors we watch carefully.

Remember that these factors have NO BEARING on the designer submitting the work nor the design itself, they merely refer to the site-user who is voting and commenting on those designs. We make no determination of the value or rank of any design on the site until the community has had the full opportunity to state their preferences.

This allows designers of all backgrounds, skills, and approaches to be judged equally and without bias by the community, and it allows all types of users to cast their vote and feel appreciated whether or not they are designers, builders, buyers, enthusiasts, or simply fleeting users of the community. More than anything we care that you engage.

Come one, come all and participate. We care that you are here, and we care what you think. Now it is your turn to effect directly the future of automotive offerings in your Local area. Local Motors - Driven by Design.

Is the prize worth the effort?

To be clear, the prizes are status in the community, validation of talent and vision, prizes every designer will love, and cash. Status and validation will come from winning the approval of the community and creating a dedicated following for your designs. Local Motors will also alter your status in Local Motors forums to reflect you as a competition winner. Prizes and cash will be awarded to both the monthly competition winner, and the Ultimate Winner. Again, to be clear, the Ultimate Winner will win more in terms of status, validation, prizes, and cash. In terms of cash, the monthly winner will win $1,500 - $10,000, and the Ultimate Winner will win $10,000 more.

The prize amount for the competitions will vary and increase depending on the amount of time involved in completing the competition requirements. The opportunity to win up to $20,000, increase your notoriety, and see your design on the road are all part of the winner's pot. Yes, we think the prize is worth the effort.

If I am under 18 years old, can I compete in the Local Motors Competitions?

You will have to wait until you are 18 to enter the actual competition, and here is why: When an entrant is under 18, a contract with him/her is simply unenforceable in a court of law. For example, even if someone under 18 signed away his right to a prize, he/she could later potentially try to regain that prize based on the fact that he/she was not 18 and the contract was unenforceable.

This opens the company up to too much variability and so we cannot accept competition entries unless the participant is 18 years or older. However, all community members can use the Checkup which is every bit as valuable a forum for feedback. We hope that community members under the age of 18 will not feel too left out since they have this valuable avenue for feedback.

What is the "Design Process" section meant to do?

This area is meant to develop designers and their work in a process similar to what one might find in the top studios. We see this as an extension of real design development. Castriota may have penned the Birdcage but he was guided by Okuyama and a team of many others at Maserati. This same dance goes for David Rojas who had Carl Zipfel and a whole team at Hummer not to mention Ed Welburn and the Ghost of Harley Earl looking over his HX and pushing it to be the best it could be. And so on and so on goes the story of furthering design in a great studio...

How can I get my design in the "Design Process" section?

The designs invited into the process section will be chosen by the community and Local Motors. These will be only the designs from Checkup with stellar reviews and possibility, the most promising competition entries, and the highest potential designs chosen from portfolios.

In order to be invited into the Design Process section, your work must be available for review somewhere on the site.

Can I participate in the "Design Process" section even if my design is not selected?

You may participate in the Design Process by contributing to the progression of your peer's work. Every design in the Design Process will invite comments from the entire Local Motors Community. Only Local Motors and the Designer who penned the car in process will be able to post iterations of the Design in process. However, all visitors will be able to post visual comments, including sketches, pictures, and diagrams.

Will I be notified if my design is selected for Design Process?

It is Local Motors policy at this time to honor those selected for Design Process with an advance email. Due to the volume of traffic on our site, it is possible that a design may appear on Design Process before the designer receives notification.

More will surely be added to the FAQs as questions are asked. Feel free to comment here on the blog to ask questions, or email us personally.

How do I upload designs to my portfolio?

After you register and activate your account, you can access your portfolio by going to the "My Profile" link in the upper right corner of the main page. From there you can view your current portfolio and follow a link to upload any design you like, but each file will need to be 1Mb or smaller.

If you experience any difficulty, please email us at support@local-motors.com.

What is a Check-Up?

When you submit a design for Check-Up, you are asking for feedback from the Local Motors community. The Check-Up function is both for designs you will submit to the competition, and for designs which are not meant for the competition.

What is a Charter Member?

A Local Motors Charter Member is either one of the first 20 designers to upload either a design competition submission or a Local Motors portfolio, or one of the first 20 members to purchase a deposit on a Rally Fighter. Charter Members are the members with a "1" next to their name. As first contributors, these members are hugely important to the development of the Local Motors Brand and Community.

Can I include other branded vehicle designs in my Local Motors portfolio?

Yes, certainly. Local Motors is a place for you to see and be seen. Your portfolio should include any design you are proud of, regardless of the brand.

Are we for real?

The short answer is YES, we are for real. Jay Rogers who is Local Motors' President, CEO and Co-Founder has been researching and building Local Motors for the last three years. We have the man power, the financing, the planning and the experience to create an awesome company.

I already have a portfolio, what reason is there for me to upload a Local Motors Portfolio?

You could use the Local Motors portfolio to increase your notoriety. Unlike other portfolio hosting sites or your own website, actual car buyers visit Local Motors in search of great design. This is a way for you to increase your fan-base. It's sort of like the movie Field of Dreams, "If you build it, they will come". People want to award you credit by voting, and if they are judging your design, they are going to want to know your breadth and skill before they crown you a winner. Only if you give them a solid look at your portfolio right alongside your competition entry in addition to your profile, and experience, will they really get a strong sense for who you are. Local Motors is not as much a social network as it is a REAL community of enthusiasts, professionals, and like-minded aficionados. We all need to see your work here.

How is Local Motors different from other portfolio hosting sites, or other car design competitions?

We are building a community that puts the designer on a pedestal. This is not a black box, where you send stuff to us and a discrete panel of judges tells you if it is good. This is an interactive community where comments and suggestions and voting are happening on real time. This feedback is the LARGEST value designers receive from the site. Based on interviewing many designers, we know that this is something that is really exciting and has not been done before. We understand that sharing design is challenging, but the value received from the community far exceeds the fear that people will only take and not give. We run a competition every month, and pay out every month. Not every year. True, we cannot make every car which wins. We do not intend to, but that does not mean that we cannot celebrate and offer a community for great design.

I am a car enthusiast, how do I get involved in Local Motors?

Car enthusiasts and design lovers are invited to participate in every aspect of Local Motors. From voting on original car body designs, to generating feedback for a designer you admire you can sculpt the Local Motors brand. As a car lover and an active voice representing the "market", this community is eager to design a car you want to drive. The Local Motors Website is not an impersonal suggestion-box approach to community feedback; this is a hands-on tool for you to promote, create and ultimately drive your ideal car.

How does Local Motors intend to build and sell cars? Doesn't this cost hundreds of millions of dollars?

To compete with the major auto manufacturers, it would cost hundreds of millions of dollars. However, we do not intend to compete with them in terms of size or mass appeal. Our focus is specifically car enthusiasts and design lovers. We intend a simpler product and a lower volume. You might ask then why customers will pay for that simplicity, and we would answer that the specialized local nature of the business is meant to make up for that differentiation. We are ALL ABOUT bringing the fun of cars back to people's hometown. Think of Micro-Beer for cars or Organic Food markets. What would you pay more for: a generic beer purchased at a 7-11, or a custom Micro-Brew? Where would you rather shop: an Organic Food Market with local produce, or a Supermarket Chain? The products at these types of local places are simpler and created with less manufacturing complexity, though they cost more because they are special and lower volume. Therefore, we do not intend to create a large OEM only to sell cars through dealerships. Volume is not our thing.

How will Local Motors sell cars?

Cars will be sold from specialized facilities distributed across the United States. These local facilities will not only stimulate local economies, they will be a source of pride for the entire community.

Local Motors will create an aspirational experience of scarcity driven demand whereby the local factory will create a Wonka-like fascination with its products and methods. Not only will it sell its cars, but it will sell the experience of people being able to visit and watch their car being "born".

How are winners chosen from the Local Motors Sketch Competitions?

Local Motors will choose the winner of each competition. Community enthusiasm and voting for each design is the most important factor taken into account. We will be looking for designs that specifically satisfy the needs of people in each specified area. Greatness, in our estimation, comes from how purely the design expresses the objectives of the vehicle aesthetically and functionally. A winning entry will also express the individuality of its designer.

How does Local Motors intend to promote sustainability?

By drastically limiting and eventually eliminating waste, we will create not only ecological sustainability, but also sustainability for our community and our company.

Unlike the old dealership model, Local Motors will not build huge quantities of each car which will then sit on a car lot for ages. We build limited-production vehicles on an as-ordered basis.

Why are Local Motors cars more efficient?

Local Motors' lightweight vehicles will reduce carbon and particulate emissions while achieving best in class fuel efficiency, initially using conventional internal combustion engine technology. Using proven technologies, Local Motors will immediately begin to address concerns over climate change, fuel costs, and dependence on foreign oil.

If the mass production and marketing methods of Ford and GM ushered in the first generation of automaking, and the lean Toyota Production System ushered in the second, Local Motors represents the first fully functioning "Automotive 3.0" company.

How often will Local Motors build cars?

In the auto industry the average time from blank sheet of paper to production can be as large as 7 years, and then the model life can be as long as ten years. This makes for long slow cycles of design change. Local Motors will significantly reduce the length of this cycle to more closely approximate the development of consumer tastes.

How do I buy a Local Motors car?

When the first car is available for purchase, it will only be available for order and purchase through a Local Motors facility. Though we expect people will travel to see and perhaps buy cars from distant facilities, the Company will focus heavily on selling cars within its local market.

What is the "Local Motors Experience"?

Participating in the design process, collaborating to create a no-compromise vehicle you love, then participating as the design you love transcends from sketch to road-ready production vehicle. Even after your car is built, purchased, and driven home the Local Motors experience continues. The auto-servicing aspect of Local Motors will be a pleasure and will set a new standard for customer service. The Local Motors Experience is about design inspired by you, about collaboration, and definitely about a gratifying personal experience.

How do I buy a Rally Fighter?*

The first step in purchasing your Rally Fighter is to visit the "Buy" Page, and purchase a number for $99. By purchasing a number you are securing your position in line. If you are the 4th person to purchase a Rally Fighter number, then you will be 4th in line to be called and offered the opportunity to place a deposit on a Rally Fighter, and the 4th to be offered the opportunity to secure an early build date.

The $99 cost of buying a number is refundable until you make the first $5,000 deposit.

When your number is called, you will be asked to place a $5,000 deposit on your Rally Fighter in order to secure your build date.

Once your build date is set, you will arrive at Local Motors to build your Rally Fighter and you will pay the remaining balance.

You can reserve your Rally Fighter and buy a number by going to http://www.local-motors.com/rf

Can I transfer my Rally Fighter number, or buy a number for a friend as a gift?*

Yes. When you purchase your Rally Fighter number, enter your friend's information and indicate that your purchase is a gift. You can work with Local Motors to transfer your Rally Fighter number.

You can reserve your Rally Fighter and buy a number by going to http://www.local-motors.com/rf

Can I buy several Rally Fighter "numbers" so that I am offered the opportunity to reserve several early build dates and Rally Fighters? *

Yes, you can buy several Rally Fighter numbers.

When can I buy a Rally Fighter?*

Soon! If you want to buy a Rally Fighter, or you think you want to buy a Rally Fighter, you should purchase a number as soon as possible. If you buy a number now you will be one of the first to build and own a Rally Fighter, and it only costs $99. If you change your mind, or if your circumstances change, the $99 is refundable.

You can reserve your Rally Fighter and buy a number by going to http://www.local-motors.com/rf

If I buy number one does that mean that my rally fighter will be the first ever built?*

Some Rally Fighters will be built as "beta builds". The beta builds will help us refine our build process, and these vehicles will be the first Rally Fighters ever built.

You can reserve your Rally Fighter and buy a number by going to http://www.local-motors.com/rf

What is the Local Motors "Build Experience"?

Glad you asked. The Local Motors Build experience is a first for the automotive industry. When you purchase a Rally Fighter, you are also purchasing the "Build Experience" where you will join Local Motors experts in the Micro-Factory to build your very own Rally Fighter. The "Build Experience" is for car enthusiasts, and for those who are eager to learn the ins-and-outs of their vehicle.

Whether you are a long time car builder, a first time builder, or if you are simply a person seeking an exciting and enjoyable opportunity to learn more about cars - you are going to dig the Local Motors Build Experience.

How long does it take to build a Rally Fighter?

In two short weekends you will build your Rally Fighter. At the end of the two weekends, you can drive it home with pride and confidence.

If I want a Rally Fighter, do I have to build it?

The short answer: yes. If you're not sure if you would enjoy the experience, or if you're not sure that you would be capable of building a car, call Sarah Stokes, Local Motors' Sales Guru. She will explain the process, and convince you that building your own car is something you must experience.

Here is Sarah's info:

What happens if I get stuck during the build process and I am unable to finish?

You will be able to finish. This is the beauty of the Local Motors Build Experience, your Local Motors (LM) guru will be at your side for the entire process. If you are an experienced builder, you can consider your LM guru will be more like your assistant; if you are a first-time builder, your LM guru will be your guide. You don't have to know everything about car building, because we do.

Does Local Motors have dealerships that sell Rally Fighters?

No. The Local Motors Micro-Factory is where you will build and purchase Rally Fighters. We are not producing "extra" vehicles to be sold through a "dealership". Rally Fighters will only be built as they are purchased, and they will only be sold through the "Build Experience".

Where can I buy a Rally Fighter?

If you would like to purchase a number to reserve an early opportunity to purchase a Rally Fighter, go to the "Buy" Page.

If you have any questions, you should talk to Sarah. She can be reached via phone or email:

Where can I build a Rally Fighter?

The first Rally Fighters will be built at Local Motors headquarters in Wareham, Massachusetts.

We will soon announce the location of our first Micro-Factory in the American Southwest; the Southwestern Micro-Factory will become the home of the Rally Fighter.

What if I live far away from Massachusetts? Can you bring the Rally Fighter experience to me?

Visiting Local Motors headquarters and the Micro-Factory is part of the Build Experience, and it is necessary. The only place you will be able to build a Rally Fighter will be, initially, at headquarters in Wareham, Massachusetts, and later, at the Southwestern Micro-Factory.

Can I finance the purchase of my Rally Fighter?

Sure, but not through Local Motors. Rally Fighter buyers can negotiate financing with their banks.

How many miles per gallon will the Rally Fighter get?

An estimated 30mpg off-road, and 36mpg highway.

Who can I call with questions regarding the purchase of a Rally Fighter?