The competitive environment in industries is a driver for innovations and constant de-velopments. Higher demands from customers must be encountered by developing better and faster solutions. The technology of 3D printing is not a recent innovation as many might think. The first steps in layered manufacturing and towards the current state of the technology were taken already in the 1800’s. Since then, the technology has far developed and is applied in many different industries.The purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate how far the 3D printing technology is de-veloped and what impact it has on industries and their products. Further, it is to make aware how much the technology is already in use. The general use in industries is pre-sented, afterwards the focus of the thesis is on the automotive industry.A literature review and analysis were done to present applications, examples and up-to-date information of the 3D printing technology.The 3D printing technology brings a lot of benefits for the automotive industry. The technology enables among other possibilities the printing of complex products in one piece which is not to accomplish with traditional manufacturing technologies. Design testing can reduce the development phase and therefore the lead-time. Further, the 3D printing technology faces some challenges. Compared to traditional technologies, in the automotive industry the 3D printing technology is not yet useable for a high-volume production. In other industries such as consumer goods or the medical and dental in-dustries, a high-volume production is possible.The 3D printing technology is very promising and has enormous future potential. Fur-ther development will enable the high-volume production for the automotive industry.