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
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Strong smog is big business:
Sales at the engineering firm Dyson rose by more than a quarter in 2015, helped by a tripling of sales in China. Total revenue rose 26% to £1.7bn, including a 222% increase in China.
Dyson opened in China three years ago, selling vacuum cleaners and humidifiers but expanded its range to include purifiers in the last 12 months. In December, Beijing was forced to issue two "red" warnings over hazardous smog levels, which boosted demand for Dyson's products the firm said. Dyson said total sales of its environmental control products grew by 35% over the year, underpinned by strong growth in Asia, and it expects demand for purifiers to increase in 2016.
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
(Score: 2) by SanityCheck on Friday March 25 2016, @03:39PM
Is the Dyson car going to suck like a vacuum cleaner, or blow like a blow dryer?
(Score: 3, Funny) by CHK6 on Friday March 25 2016, @03:58PM
It depends on which direction you want to go.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Friday March 25 2016, @04:08PM
It will suck and blow, like a Heinzelmann (sorry, non-Germans will likely not get this one, this joke is for the fellow Germans here).
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 25 2016, @07:48PM
Lauffing start JEDZT. Eins zwei, eins zwei.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday March 25 2016, @04:58PM
Suck at the front, blow out the back, have a constant whine, and be high-maintenance.
You're gonna love it.
(Score: 2, Funny) by SpockLogic on Friday March 25 2016, @08:01PM
Suck at the front, blow out the back, have a constant whine, and be high-maintenance.
Sounds like my wife ...
Overreacting is one thing, sticking your head up your ass hoping the problem goes away is another - edIII
(Score: 3, Funny) by frojack on Friday March 25 2016, @05:34PM
Its going to be over-priced, and backed by an army of lawyers insisting everything in it is the unique invention of one genius.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Nuke on Friday March 25 2016, @07:27PM
BTW, my wife has dealt with Dyson personally, as she worked for a supplier company. Behind the amiable public facade, he is a PoS.
(Score: 3, Touché) by davester666 on Saturday March 26 2016, @07:50AM
It'll be as bladeless as Dyson's Bladeless Air Movers...if you can't see them, they don't exist...
The first batteryless electric car!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by TheLink on Friday March 25 2016, @06:42PM
So why make a car and be a competitor (they may refuse to buy from you then)? Road-worthy and market ready cars are quite expensive to make (go look at how much money it took Tesla)- all the different regulations etc. Just make a battery powered handheld vacuum cleaner or similar stuff you already make that proves your battery is superior and then sell it to Samsung or Apple or whoever wants an edge over these two.
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Friday March 25 2016, @09:11PM
I think they're just trying to get their name into the hat for the drawing of "Who will be the dominant electric car manufacturer of the future?" They'll still have the tech - if it truly is a breakthrough - in the future, so at that point they could still make a killing, but the real question when it comes to batteries is manufacturing capacity, and that's what Tesla's Gigafactory is going to deliver for Tesla. I'm not hearing anything about Dyson making any smart moves on that note, so their battery might be dead in the water if they don't enable its manufacture - but I digress.
What I would like to know is how many English electric car manufacturers there are - if there isn't much competition for them there, maybe they just want to capitalize on their home market rather than try and beat Chevy/Toyota/Nissan/Tesla in the US.
To me it sounds like they're thinking a battery is the biggest factor of an electric car, and while I'm no engineer, I imagine that being able to develop a lightweight/safe/production efficient frame is much more important. Dyson's engineers should know about aerodynamics, but chassis design? I'm skeptical.
(Score: 2) by Capt. Obvious on Sunday March 27 2016, @08:40AM
Why sell it for reasonable prices when you can use it to leverage an entrance in the car market? Esp. if your entrance is subsidized by the open-sourced bits of Tesla and the British government?
Using one monopoly to force open another market is a well-established pattern that works really well. So well, it's outlawed if the monopoly is de facto instead of by law.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 27 2016, @06:26PM
But why? If you're interested in making money the car industry is a stupid industry to go into. The most profitable make about 7-10%: https://infogr.am/the-worlds-ten-largest-auto-companies [infogr.am]
And not many car companies can hope to be like Toyota or Hyundai. Neither old timers like GM nor newcomers like Tesla have such wonderful financial numbers. None of the top 3 most profitable car companies are getting their profits from being a comfortable monopoly - they all have their patents but the reason why they're top aren't those patents. If buyers think your cars suck for whatever reason it doesn't matter if the batteries are great. There's a zillion more things to get right.
You'd be making more from selling batteries to more of them than compete with them, only to sell fewer batteries to them. Like you said, you don't have to sell at reasonable prices. You could gouge them all if the batteries are really that good. And they're going to have to say "thank you" whether they like it or not.
Leverage your monopoly to get another monopoly. Going into the car industry isn't it. It's high risk low reward.
If you want higher rewards go sell "military versions" of the batteries to the Military Industrial Complex too.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 25 2016, @10:20PM
The Dyson car will actually clean the air. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 25 2016, @11:10PM
I seem to remember an advert for a (petrol) Saab back in the 90s that claimed that the gas coming out of it was cleaner than the air going into it.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by turgid on Friday March 25 2016, @11:12PM
As far as I can see, Dyson stuff is just funky colours and grandiose claims. The Air Blade (TM) is awful, for example.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Saturday March 26 2016, @07:34AM
I find the Air Blade hand dryer to be an improvement on most hot-air-blowing dryers I'd encountered previously. Granted, it's a noisy thing, but it gets the job done without roasting my soggy hands in the process.
Do you know of a better-functioning product (excluding paper towels, etc)?