Dyson, well known for their vacuum cleaners and public-washroom hand dryers, is now sniffing around the EV market. James Dyson says his company has been “researching motors, batteries, aerodynamics, vision systems and robotics for 22 years.
Now the time is right to bring all our knowledge and experience together into one big project—an electric car”.
The British entrepreneur announced at the end of 2017 his automotive projects but it is the publication of its first patents which reveal some information on the characteristics of the vehicle announced as a large 7-seater SUV by its elevation and saloon by its center of low inertia. The vehicle would be scheduled for launch in 2021.
We can surely see connections between the manufacture of vacuum cleaners or other home appliances and the production of electric vehicles: both are mass-production products using a mix of similar technologies (plastic moldings, electric motors, electronics, consumer oriented design, etc). The target demographic would match up with Dyson’s existing products (their vacuums are positioned as high-end items). But there is probably a great deal of differences to cover between the engineering and manufacturing stages of the two types of products. To counter this, Dyson has hired former Infiniti President Roland Krueger and Aston Martin’s Ian Minards to lead the engineering. The production site will be in Singapore, where the production of Dyson digital motors is already based. It’s not a low-cost country, but is considered as a gateway to the Chinese electric market with more than a million vehicles sold in 2018, and a high-skill labor pool. The development and testing center remain based in Wiltshire, UK.
