Will the King of Vacuum Cleaners Triumph with His Car?
James Dyson is best known for the futuristic vacuum cleaners that bear his name but, and as we have previously reported , he is now well dow...
https://automology.blogspot.com/2018/02/will-king-of-vacuum-cleaners-triumph.html
James Dyson is best known for the futuristic vacuum cleaners that bear his name but, and as we have previously reported, he is now well down the road of developing his very own electric car. And not just a high-end model, but a range of vehicles designed to suit every budget.
In fact, Dyson is planning an initial trio of offerings sometime in the next decade, that will also eschew the Li-ion battery for a safer solid state battery pack. The project is estimated to be worth some US$2.8 billion, a sum that could give even Elon Musk a bit of a jolt, and if we are to believe the somewhat maverick man behind the radically different household appliances, his offering will be a radically different approach to electric cars.
As of now, Dyson's first car will be a high-end niche vehicle sold in small numbers, and very probably manufactured in China. However, news is that this will be very quickly followed by a couple of mass market variants. Dyson is known to have been investing in lightweight technologies, such as carbon fibre, which BMW favours for its i3 models and also solid state batteries.
Dyson is not the only one that is chasing the holy grail of solid state batteries, which offer greater range in a smaller, lighter, longer lasting package. Fisker (another fledgling EV company) actually unveiled a concept car at the recent CES, but like Dyson, even it will be launching using existing Li-ion batteries, simply because no one has been able to get a solid state battery to live up to the promise as of yet.
There have been many EV start-ups over the years and frankly there will be many more, as much of what you need can be bought off the shelf. Therefore, we can expect loads of attention-grabbing headlines from the wannabes, much in the same way as Elon Musk’s Tesla frequently does. The fate of the many, though, is to fail, although this has not deterred Dyson, and this could simply be because of his background in engineering and manufacturing. But since he first thought about doing his EV, the likes of Audi and Porsche and Volvo have gotten into the long-range EV game, and thus the business environment may well be very different when the Dyson EV is finally revealed to the public.
In fact, Dyson is planning an initial trio of offerings sometime in the next decade, that will also eschew the Li-ion battery for a safer solid state battery pack. The project is estimated to be worth some US$2.8 billion, a sum that could give even Elon Musk a bit of a jolt, and if we are to believe the somewhat maverick man behind the radically different household appliances, his offering will be a radically different approach to electric cars.
Okay, bet it won't look like this either.
As of now, Dyson's first car will be a high-end niche vehicle sold in small numbers, and very probably manufactured in China. However, news is that this will be very quickly followed by a couple of mass market variants. Dyson is known to have been investing in lightweight technologies, such as carbon fibre, which BMW favours for its i3 models and also solid state batteries.
Dyson is not the only one that is chasing the holy grail of solid state batteries, which offer greater range in a smaller, lighter, longer lasting package. Fisker (another fledgling EV company) actually unveiled a concept car at the recent CES, but like Dyson, even it will be launching using existing Li-ion batteries, simply because no one has been able to get a solid state battery to live up to the promise as of yet.
There have been many EV start-ups over the years and frankly there will be many more, as much of what you need can be bought off the shelf. Therefore, we can expect loads of attention-grabbing headlines from the wannabes, much in the same way as Elon Musk’s Tesla frequently does. The fate of the many, though, is to fail, although this has not deterred Dyson, and this could simply be because of his background in engineering and manufacturing. But since he first thought about doing his EV, the likes of Audi and Porsche and Volvo have gotten into the long-range EV game, and thus the business environment may well be very different when the Dyson EV is finally revealed to the public.
