Dyson scraps its electric car
Dyson has cancelled its £2bn electric car development, saying it had been unable to make it cost effective.
“The Dyson Automotive team have developed a fantastic car; they have been ingenious in their approach while remaining faithful to our philosophies. However, though we have tried very hard throughout the development process, we simply cannot make it commercially viable. We have been through a serious process to find a buyer for the project which has, unfortunately, been unsuccessful so far,” said Sir James Dyson, founder of the company. “The Dyson Board has therefore taken the very difficult decision to propose the closure of our automotive project.”
The development was based in Hullavington in Wiltshire, UK, with a team of around 520, and the compant said it would continue to invest in the new site. “This is not a product failure, or a failure of the team,” said Dyson. “We are working to quickly find alternative roles within Dyson for as many of the team as possible and we have sufficient vacancies to absorb most of the people into our Home business.”
Dyson said it will continue its £2.5bn investment program into new technology and grow its engineering college. “We will also concentrate on the formidable task of manufacturing solid state batteries and other fundamental technologies which we have identified: sensing technologies, vision systems, robotics, machine learning, and AI,” he said. “Our battery will benefit Dyson in a profound way and take us in exciting new directions.”
The solid state battery technology was acquired from Sakti3, but later wrote down a £46m (€51m) investment and sold off the patents it aquired.
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