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Sir James Dyson announced last Thursday to put an end to his electric car project. The reasons for such a turnaround? A late arrival on the market, an increasingly aggressive competition and a very uncertain return on investment in the short term.
"We do not know what we are capable of until we have triedThat could have been Sir James Dyson's answer after the official withdrawal of the eponymous brand in the race for the electric car, announced Thursday, October 10. But for the inventor of the bagless vacuum cleaner, "it is neither a failure of the product development nor a failure of the team".
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The public announcement to give up a development program of around 2.28 billion euros – including the electric car and dry battery technology – is sufficiently rare to be reported. Some brands of high-tech in California should take some seed …
Since September 2017, when Dyson had recognized the development of an electric car, the brand had not spared no effort. A dedicated division, Dyson Automotive, had been created and provided with human resources (400 people) and substantial financial resources to achieve the production of a "fantastic electric vehicleEven the British government had a hand in hand with a grant of some 20 million euros.
We want to modernize the auto sector and we have the skills to do it.
In parallel with this project, Dyson acquired Sakti3, an American company specializing in batteries, particularly those with solid electrodes and electrolytes. To put the odds on its side, the British brand had also bought the former military airfield Hullavington to build a track for testing the future electric car, or rather the three models. Indeed, Dyson worked on the development of three electric vehicles including a very high-end.
The test circuit at the Hullavington Military Airfield © Dyson
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What has messed up?
Why such a turnaround? It's all about timing. The Dyson Automotive project arrived too late compared to Tesla. The Californian had the nose to position himself at the right time. The group of whimsical Elon Musk has managed to occupy the ground alone under the mocking eye of the car industry which also woke up too late, except perhaps Renault and Toyota.
But since then, all traditional car manufacturers have been working hard. Thus the supply of electric vehicles available has grown considerably. Tesla, Renault, Volkswagen, Mercedes, Seat, Skoda, Peugeot, Opel, DS, Audi, BMW, Jaguar, Volvo … The biggest answer now.
Another reason, surprising at first, comes from Alex Webb, columnist and specialist of "European industries of technology, media and communications"In a paper published by Bloomberg for the latter, it is too easy to build an electric car that decided Dyson to stop its program.So, according to Goldman Sachs Group, an electric vehicle would require the employment of 11 000 components compared to 30 000 for a thermal car.This considerable reduction has encouraged the emergence of new entrants, not necessarily specialists in the automotive industry at the start, like the Tesla, Lucid Motors, Faraday Future, Byton or NIO for the most famous.
But since the "big" of the car have decided to bet a lot of money on the electrification of the car. Like Volkswagen, which will release $ 52 billion for a production of about 2 million electric vehicles per year by 2025. The German manufacturer will rely on its dealer network in 153 countries to sell its electric cars. According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, car manufacturers have committed to spend at least $ 141 billion for electrification!
We will survive! As long as people continue to buy our vacuums.
Suffice to say that before the 2.28 billion euros spent on his project, Dyson is a small player. Especially with a return on investment target much faster than that of a classic car manufacturer. Mission impossible, knowing that in the last quarter of 2019, 575,000 electric vehicles were sold worldwide, or 3.7% of the total automobile market. (Bloomberg source)
The unfortunate adventures of NIO and Faraday Future also help to understand James Dyson's reluctance to go further in this area. Especially in case of failure, it is the other departments (vacuum cleaners, hand dryers and hair dryers) that would have suffered.
For Dyson, it's important to get back on track quickly. Despite this failure – the second after the washing machine – Dyson has acquired many skills that should serve him internally and externally. If the car is abandoned, it remains nevertheless the wonderful project of batteries "with electrodes and solid electrolytes" …
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