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Dyson to produce an electric vehicle

Well-known vacuum maker, Dyson, is reportedly building an electric vehicle with funding from the UK government.

UK GOVERNMENT documents reveal that well-known vacuum maker, Dyson, which is famous for producing the sort of motors needed for efficient and powerful electric products, think hand dryers, the bladeless fan and its non-suction-loss vacuums.

Last year, UK publications asked Dyson if it was working on an electric vehicle due to industry rumours, and its CEO Max Conze responded that the company was “unhealthily obsessive when it comes to taking apart our products to make them better”.

Now, UK governement documents reveal that Dyson is indeed going to build a battery-powered electric vehicle and UK taxpayers are going to foot the bill. At least in part.

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 this week.

The Guardian asked Dyson to comment on the Government paper, and a spokesperson responded: “We never comment on products that are in development”.

Last year, Dyson purchased a solid-state battery company, called Sakti3 and, at the time, company founder, Sir James Dyson said the company had “developed a breakthrough in battery technology”.


3 Comments

  1. McF1
    March 26, 2016 at 4:55 pm — Reply

    There is plenty happening in the world of battery technology, which I know zero about.
    Solid state batteries for mass production sound very intriguing. It is great that the UK Government is investing in the research of the technology along with Dyson. (I suppose that’s what the Aust’ Government is currently implying, that is to invest money in new future technologies, rather than to keep ploughing money into wind and solar).
    And a few months ago I saw an article about nanoflowcell drive battery technology. A very interesting aspect of this one is the vision about a EV car pulling into the fuel station to fill up with a non-flammable “ionic” liquid; no need for charging. The concept Quantino Coupe using the technology was previewed at 2015 Geneva motor show.
    There are so many competing technologies. Hydrogen vs Batteries is an interesting one. Hydrogen is the one offering the convenience of filling up at a fuel station.
    And it looks like the “talk” of a few years ago about EV cars “swapping batteries” at a station, which never sounded practical, is a distance memory.

  2. trackdaze
    March 29, 2016 at 7:07 pm — Reply

    I hope it don’t suck.

    • nutz
      April 3, 2016 at 12:44 pm — Reply

      our experience with a Dyson vacuum is one we want to forget. Dreadful machine. Over complicated and unreliable. Complete waste of a lot of money. Will never go near a Dyson product again.

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Isaac Bober

Isaac Bober