Dyson, that well-known vacuum cleaner company, has decided to scrap its EV car project. Even though the company’s president, Sir James Dyson, announced they had developed a fantastic electric car, the word on the street is that the ‘Dyson Sucker’ will not hit the road because it was not commercially viable.
Dyson had planned to invest a total of GBP2 billion into the development of the “radical and different” mass-market car when the project was launched back in 2016. Already the car company has 500 employees, all of whom will be losing their jobs after Sir James failed to off-load the unit to a new owner. All is not lost as about GBP1 billion of the investment was to go into the development of new battery technology and that is still in the mix.
The car was destined to be built in Singapore with the plan for the first models to roll off the production line in 2021. But although they have come up with what many are calling a revolutionary design, the company just couldn’t get the sums to add up. Sales of EVs are climbing but, as of yet, they still cost more to make than people are willing to pay for them, leading to loss-making ventures.
Some of the bigger players like Volkswagen, with their ability to share the same platform over multiple brands, can sink billions into the development of these vehicles, hoping that their economies of scale will eventually make the technology cost-effective. Even our favourite EV manufacturer, Tesla, has been burning through huge piles of cash and had to go a-begging to investors more than once.
Most of the job losses will be at the UK testing facility and the company will be trying to find alternative roles for them in their home division—you know, the one that makes hairdryers and vacuum cleaners, which doesn’t sound that sexy if you wanted a role developing cars of course.
Sir James was as upbeat as usual, claiming that the car was not a failure and that the team had stuck to the Dyson philosophy whilst coming up with an ingenious design, resulting in what he described as a fantastic car. The battery technology that was being developed for the car will continue to be worked on and promises to take the company in a whole new direction, he said.
