Industry News: Dyson Plans An Electric Vehicle

[William Maley]

It seems everyone is getting into the car business, whether that is through autonomous technologies or electric vehicles. The latest entrant may surprise a number.

Yesterday, Dyson (yes, the vacuum cleaner maker) announced that it was working on an electric vehicle. Rumors about this have been swirling for a few years. Last year, the documents from the UK government revealed a £16 million ($22.54 million) grant was awarded to the company for the research and development on batteries, which added more fuel to the fire. In the announcement, founder James Dyson revealed that company has been working on this project for more than two years. 400 people are working on the project and is looking to hire more people.

It may seem crazy for a vacuum cleaner maker to go into the electric car business. But Dyson highlights their experience in developing batteries and electric motors for their hair dryers and cordless vacuums. This, in theory, should help them get their electric car project off the ground.

The plan is to have the EV on sale by 2020. We'll believe it when we see it.

Source: Dyson, Auto Express

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[David]

This will be interesting. I see this as a proving point of their battery and controller R&D and then sell it off to an Auto Company.

[surreal1272]

So many puns about sucking (or not losing suction), so little time.

[daves87rs]

He's a pretty smart guy, I'd like to see him pull this off......

[Drew Dowdell]

Next up: Hoover and Kirby.

I'd actually buy a Kirby built car, I have 2 of their vacuums, both older than me, and will likely out last me.

[Robert Hall]

I wonder if the Dyson car will have advanced ground effects to hold the road with suction, using their expertise in vacuums...

In an alternate universe, I could imagine a Sears Craftsman pickup truck line, a Home Depot truck line, a Cosco Kirkland minivan, etc..

Edited September 27, 2017 by Cubical-aka-Moltar

[David]

9 minutes ago, Cubical-aka-Moltar said:

I wonder if the Dyson car will have advanced ground effects to hold the road with suction, using their expertise in vacuums...

In an alternate universe, I could imagine a Sears Craftsman pickup truck line, a Home Depot truck line, a Cosco Kirkland minivan, etc..

See the Marketing, Get your Suction on with Dyson EV Auto!  

26 minutes ago, Drew Dowdell said:

Next up: Hoover and Kirby.

I'd actually buy a Kirby built car, I have 2 of their vacuums, both older than me, and will likely out last me.

Seems like the early days of the 1900's all over but now all about the EV baby!  

[surreal1272]

“Unlike our vacuums, our cars don’t suck but like our vacuums, they are made with cheap plastics.”

[Drew Dowdell]

22 minutes ago, surreal1272 said:

“Unlike our vacuums, our cars don’t suck but like our vacuums, they are made with cheap plastics.”

Hey, that worked for Saturn for 15 years.

1 hour ago, Cubical-aka-Moltar said:

I wonder if the Dyson car will have advanced ground effects to hold the road with suction, using their expertise in vacuums...

In an alternate universe, I could imagine a Sears Craftsman pickup truck line, a Home Depot truck line, a Cosco Kirkland minivan, etc..

I'm sure @balthazar will have something to add, but Sears has already sold it's own brand of cars called the Allstate....they were rebadged Henry Js

[Robert Hall]

29 minutes ago, Drew Dowdell said:

Hey, that worked for Saturn for 15 years.

I'm sure @balthazar will have something to add, but Sears has already sold it's own brand of cars called the Allstate....they were rebadged Henry Js

Oh yeah, I knew that, but didn't bring it up as I figured someone would chime in..

Edited September 27, 2017 by Cubical-aka-Moltar

[surreal1272]

1 hour ago, Drew Dowdell said:

Hey, that worked for Saturn for 15 years.

I'm sure @balthazar will have something to add, but Sears has already sold it's own brand of cars called the Allstate....they were rebadged Henry Js

Umm, going to disagree with that unless you love things that squeak nonstop after only six months. My sister had three different ones and the squeaking drove her nuts. Great concept, horrible execution. 

[smk4565]

This won't work.  It takes a lot to build a car between wind tunnel, head on crash, off set crash, rear impact crash, side impact crash, roll over crash, and pedestrian impact.  Right there is a ton of R&D just to get it to pass regulations.  Before you ever get to motors, battery, design, interior, suspension settings, steering feel, etc.

Then even if you make the car, you have to market and distribute it, service it, need a dealer network and so on.  Automobile industry has huge barriers to entry.

And even if they did pull it off, it would cost 3 times the competitors product.

[surreal1272]

26 minutes ago, smk4565 said:

This won't work.  It takes a lot to build a car between wind tunnel, head on crash, off set crash, rear impact crash, side impact crash, roll over crash, and pedestrian impact.  Right there is a ton of R&D just to get it to pass regulations.  Before you ever get to motors, battery, design, interior, suspension settings, steering feel, etc.

Then even if you make the car, you have to market and distribute it, service it, need a dealer network and so on.  Automobile industry has huge barriers to entry.

And even if they did pull it off, it would cost 3 times the competitors product.

And I’m sure they are not aware of that at all, being a billion dollar company and all. Good thing you let them know lol!

[smk4565]

12 minutes ago, surreal1272 said:

And I’m sure they are not aware of that at all, being a billion dollar company and all. Good thing you let them know lol!

It takes a car company with existing products about $1 billion to develop a new car, sometimes more.  These guys want to go from scratch, that is multi-billion investment.  I'll believe it when I see it.

[balthazar]

Tesla didn't start with a scratch built product, and I'm sure it didn't cost anything close to $1B.

[surreal1272]

3 hours ago, smk4565 said:

It takes a car company with existing products about $1 billion to develop a new car, sometimes more.  These guys want to go from scratch, that is multi-billion investment.  I'll believe it when I see it.

You missed the obvious sarcasm and they are worth $4.5 Billion which is a few billion more than Elon Musk started with. 

[ccap41]

11 hours ago, balthazar said:

Tesla didn't start with a scratch built product, and I'm sure it didn't cost anything close to $1B.

Wasn't their Roadster built off of a Lotus platform? 

[Robert Hall]

7 minutes ago, ccap41 said:

Wasn't their Roadster built off of a Lotus platform? 

Yes, it was a rebodied Lotus Elise.

[ccap41]

16 minutes ago, Cubical-aka-Moltar said:

Yes, it was a rebodied Lotus Elise.

I thought so but I didn't have a picture handy.. and too lazy to google.. 

[balthazar]

Exactly- so what's to stop another intending OEM to follow the same path Tesla did?

James Dyson is supposedly worth $8B (Musk: $20B), and the Dyson Co pulls down $2.5B in revenue (Tesla: $7B).
But that's Tesla now- what were it's number in Year 1?

[Drew Dowdell]

1 hour ago, balthazar said:

Exactly- so what's to stop another intending OEM to follow the same path Tesla did?

James Dyson is supposedly worth $8B (Musk: $20B), and the Dyson Co pulls down $2.5B in revenue (Tesla: $7B).
But that's Tesla now- what were it's number in Year 1?

And there are empty, or soon to be empty, automotive manufacturing plants all over the world.  Heck, when that 3-Wheeler car company Elio finally folds soon, Dyson could probably pick up the freshly refurbished Shreveport, LA plant at fire sale price. 

[David]

16 hours ago, surreal1272 said:

Umm, going to disagree with that unless you love things that squeak nonstop after only six months. My sister had three different ones and the squeaking drove her nuts. Great concept, horrible execution. 

Which one, Allstate or Saturn? Both seem to be squeaky!  

[David]

11 hours ago, surreal1272 said:

You missed the obvious sarcasm and they are worth $4.5 Billion which is a few billion more than Elon Musk started with. 

We Seriously need a Sarcasm Emoji.

@Drew Dowdell Quesstion for you, any chance like Slack that this forum software is able to allow us to upload custom emoji's that the Admins can review and approve? Would be cool to expand our Emoji Selection.

Would love the Party Parrot group of Emoji's

[Drew Dowdell]

*recovers from seizure* ....

uh... I'll look into it. 

[surreal1272]

27 minutes ago, dfelt said:

Which one, Allstate or Saturn? Both seem to be squeaky!  

Only have personal experience with the Satun lol. 

[ccap41]

2 hours ago, balthazar said:

Exactly-

Sorry, I guess I took that as "they did start from scratch" not that they didn't start from scratch. 

15 hours ago, smk4565 said:

It takes a car company with existing products about $1 billion to develop a new car, sometimes more.  These guys want to go from scratch, that is multi-billion investment.  I'll believe it when I see it.

Most large non-automotive companies seem to do better with cash than auto companies because their margins are that much better so I wouldn't push aside any non-automotive company jumping into the auto world with how electronic everything is going. If they know electronics, they can build a car. 

Without looking at any numbers I'd wager Dyson has more cash to blow than Mercedes does.. 

[David]

13 minutes ago, ccap41 said:

Sorry, I guess I took that as "they did start from scratch" not that they didn't start from scratch. 

Most large non-automotive companies seem to do better with cash than auto companies because their margins are that much better so I wouldn't push aside any non-automotive company jumping into the auto world with how electronic everything is going. If they know electronics, they can build a car. 

Without looking at any numbers I'd wager Dyson has more cash to blow than Mercedes does.. 

Apple sure does,  

[smk4565]

6 hours ago, ccap41 said:

Sorry, I guess I took that as "they did start from scratch" not that they didn't start from scratch. 

Most large non-automotive companies seem to do better with cash than auto companies because their margins are that much better so I wouldn't push aside any non-automotive company jumping into the auto world with how electronic everything is going. If they know electronics, they can build a car. 

Without looking at any numbers I'd wager Dyson has more cash to blow than Mercedes does.. 

Auto making as an industry doesn't have good margins.  Probably among the worst of all industries.  

[David]

51 minutes ago, smk4565 said:

Auto making as an industry doesn't have good margins.  Probably among the worst of all industries.  

Very True and I expect as the industry moves forward into EV's that there is some  partial merges if not outright buy outs by those tech companies with the deep wallets.

[Drew Dowdell]

1 hour ago, smk4565 said:

Auto making as an industry doesn't have good margins.  Probably among the worst of all industries.  

Those margins will get better as we move to EVs though. It is the relative simplicity of the electric motor and the lower overall regulation compliance needed (no emissions, easier time with crash standards) that lower the bar of entry.  I'm sure we haven't seen the last new entrant into the marketplace by a pure EV manufacturer. 

[balthazar]

10 hours ago, Drew Dowdell said:

uh... I'll look into it. 

Please don't.

[ccap41]

12 hours ago, Drew Dowdell said:

Those margins will get better as we move to EVs though.

That's what I was thinking as well. Much less moving parts as a whole. Warranties will be easier to cover as well as a electric motor and the diagnosis to replace is much easier and quicker. As a whole, EV's will be great for auto makers.