Dyson has scrapped its electric car project
Dyson had planned to invest more than £2bn in developing a "radical and different" electric vehicle, a project it launched in 2016. It said the car would not be aimed at the mass market. Half of the funds would go towards building the car, half towards developing electric batteries.
In October 2018 Dyson revealed plans to build the car at a new plant in Singapore. It was expected to be completed next year, with the first vehicles due to roll off the production line in 2021.
[...] Dyson has concluded it simply can't afford to play with the big boys - although its efforts to make a quantum leap in battery technology will continue. [...] Sir James said Dyson would continue to work on the battery technology, which was used in the car. "Our battery will benefit Dyson in a profound way and take us in exciting new directions."
Previously: Dyson Developing Electric Cars... With UK Government Money
Dyson Will Build Electric Cars in Singapore for a 2021 Launch
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Vacuum and appliance maker Dyson is reportedly developing an electric car, and it has help:
Dyson is developing an electric car at its headquarters in Wiltshire with help from public money, according to government documents. The company, which makes a range of products that utilise the sort of highly efficient motors needed for an electric car such as vacuum cleaners, hand dryers and bladeless fans, last year refused to rule out rumours it was building one. But on Wednesday, the government appeared to have accidentally disclosed Dyson is working on one, along with other big companies outside of the automotive industry, such as Apple.
"The government is funding Dyson to develop a new battery electric vehicle at their headquarters in Malmesbury, Wiltshire. This will secure £174m of investment in the area, creating over 500 jobs, mostly in engineering," said the National Infrastructure Delivery Plan, published on Wednesday.
[...] Dyson recently reported profits up 20% in 2015, driven by strong growth in China, and said it plans to invest £1bn in battery technology over the next five years. Last October, Dyson bought solid-state battery company, Sakti3, for $90m, which founder Sir James Dyson said had "developed a breakthrough in battery technology."
Previously: Chinese Smog Leads to Spike in Dyson's Sales
CNet:
British tech company Dyson announced on Tuesday its plans to build an electric vehicle manufacturing plant in Singapore, as part of its plans to expand into automotive.
The company is best known for making vacuum cleaners, hand dryers and hairdryers, but in 2017 it revealed it had starting working on an electric vehicle. In August of this year it announced the opening of an electric car test center at one of its existing sites in the UK. The factory where the cars will be built in Singapore is due to be completed in 2020, keeping the company on track for its scheduled 2021 automotive launch.
"Dyson's growing automotive team is making excellent progress from the state-of-the-art hangars at Hullavington Airfield in Wiltshire where we are investing £200m," said Dyson CEO Jim Rowan in a letter to employees. "Clearly we now need to move quickly towards manufacturing and assembly."
Will the cars suck, or blow past the competition?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 11 2019, @04:13PM
So he announces before even doing the math? This is what it takes to make a modern vehicle. [youtube.com] Have fun costing the manufacturing plant for yourselves.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday October 11 2019, @05:20PM (1 child)
Dyson. Dyson sphere. If he would just build the damned sphere, and let other people worry about minor details, we would all be better off!
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday October 11 2019, @07:46PM
Forget Dyson.
Build a Donaldson Sphere.
It is a mega structure surrounding the Earth.
To keep the illegal aliens out.
Nevermind that it blocks all sunlight, we can all start burning more Clean Coal™.
What are all them Democrats gonna to say when there solar power and electric cars don't work no more? Boo hoo, they'll have to grow their weed indoors.
But it will be grate I tell you! The best mega structure ever! Trust me. I've seen mega structures and this will be absolutely the best. Believe me. And we're gonna make the aliens pay for it!
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Friday October 11 2019, @05:39PM (6 children)
Oh really? Is that why BMW and Mercedes have been scrambling to bring their own EVs to market, and not because Tesla Model S has cannibalized the most profitable segment of their model line-ups?
Jesus. Well, it appears the BBC is no more to auto industry hit pieces than the New York Times. Remember when their "auto expert" took a test drive and declared the Tesla Model S was a complete disaster because it ran out of battery and stranded him on the side of the road? That was a *gasp* death knell for electric cars for about half a day before Tesla published the telemetry from the loaner they let the guy use, which showed him driving around in circles trying to run out of battery and ignoring multiple warnings and directions to the nearest charging station.
I am sorry that Dyson could not bring their plans to market. More smart engineers working on a challenge brings better solutions to the fore. It shouldn't check the sea change toward EVs, though. Every major brand is scrambling to transfer their models into electric or at least hybrid versions. That in turn is turbo charging the ancillary technologies of battery design and recharging infrastructure & standards. Ten years from now gas vehicles are going to feel like an anachronism. Heck, even manually driven cars will feel that way, too, if self-driving tech improves on the same curve as EVs are.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 11 2019, @06:12PM
No, that's because of the emissions scandal and legislative insistence on coal powered cars!
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday October 11 2019, @06:58PM (2 children)
Read the article?
The Dyson calling it quits on EV article I read said it was because EVs are too easy to make, 1/3 the component count of ICE cars, and there is already too much competition for a paltry little $1B/year company like Dyson to compete on the marketing end with all the players who are going to flood in because they can (like Tesla...)
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by NateMich on Friday October 11 2019, @09:15PM (1 child)
I thought the takeaway was that electric cars don't make any money. This is already known throughout the industry.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday October 11 2019, @10:29PM
Different article, different spin, I suppose. Too lazy/pressed for time at the moment to find mine that I read this morning again.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday October 12 2019, @04:02AM (1 child)
Both which remain way behind what is needed. Sorry, I don't buy that a chemical battery (or indeed any battery equivalent, like a flywheel where chemical bonds are a limit of the energy the battery can contain) can ever be competitive with the energy content of a tank of hydrocarbons, even with exotic, high energy reactions (involving stuff like fluorine and the more exciting metals). Nuclear and such is a different story. But chemical batteries have to compete with a chemical storage system that a) doesn't need to store the oxidizer part (only a few batteries use air as the oxidizer), and b) doesn't need to store the waste reaction products either (no battery can do that).
The only thing that keeps electric viable is the considerable inefficiency of the internal combustion engine which is limited in efficiency due to the maximum heat load that various critical parts of the engine can withstand. Maybe some sort of staged combustion (allows for much hotter combustion, increasing efficiency) gas turbine/electric combo (since electric really is a nice way to transfer power to the wheels and already exists) could do it, but that's not going to show up on a commercial vehicle in the next ten years.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 13 2019, @07:45AM
Latest gasoline ICEs are over 40% thermal efficiency and pushing on 50%. Takes a combination of turbocharging and clever controls but this is coming to production in the near future.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 11 2019, @06:46PM
https://www.automotivetestingtechnologyinternational.com/news/proving-grounds/dyson-reveals-plans-for-115m-us150m-bev-proving-ground.html [automotivetestingtechnologyinternational.com]
I wonder who will buy it? Avon (specialty and racing tires now owned by USA Cooper Tire) are also in Wiltshire and a number of the Formula 1 teams are a bit north in "motorsports valley".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 11 2019, @09:24PM (1 child)
I was looking forward to being vacuumed up in the excitement of a Dyson EV
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 11 2019, @11:59PM
They should make a sex bot instead.
(Score: 2) by corey on Saturday October 12 2019, @12:59AM
Dyson should make a street cleaner truck, the ones with big vacuums and little rotating brooms on the sides. At least it's connected to their core product line then. They could make the truck container translucent so you can see all the shit spinning around inside. My kids would _love_ that.