Dyson has been revealed as a recipient of a UK government funding to develop electric cars. Yes, Dyson, the company known for its bagless vacuum cleaners, bladeless fans and the hand dryer you use in the mall’s toilet.
According to The Guardian, the UK company previously refused to rule out rumours it was building an EV. When Dyson CEO Max Conze was asked last year if the company was working on an electric car, he replied: “We are ruling nothing out. Like our friends in Cupertino [Apple] we are also unhealthily obsessive when it comes to taking apart our products to make them better.”
But last week, the government unwittingly disclosed that Dyson is working on one. “The government is funding Dyson to develop a new battery electric vehicle at their headquarters in Malmesbury, Wiltshire. This will secure £174m (RM993m) of investment in the area, creating over 500 jobs, mostly in engineering,” said the National Infrastructure Delivery Plan.
Asked by the UK broadsheet if the company was developing an electric car, a Dyson spokesman said: “We never comment on products that are in development.” An answer from the Office for Low Emissions Vehicles, which encourages the roll-out of electric vehicles as a way to cut air emissions, is pending.
The report adds that Dyson recently announced 20% higher profits in 2015, driven by strong growth in China. The company said it plans to invest £1bn in battery technology over the next five years. Last October, Dyson bought solid-state battery company, Sakti3, for $90m (RM352m), which 68-year old founder Sir James Dyson said had “developed a breakthrough in battery technology.”
Also, many of Dyson’s appliances utilise small, light and efficient electric motors developed over 10 years, which may be useful in developing a new electric car. In 2014, Dyson pledged that his company, which now has over 1,000 engineers, would spend £1.5bn on R&D to create future products, aiming to launch 100 new electrical products by 2018. Dyson has a base in Malaysia.
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Dyson making cars??
Their vacuum every two years sure rosak and masuk workshop long time. But their warranty service is quite good, always take in rosak stuff with no questions.
DBKL and other local councils will need their car.
true story. I got the portable one for vacuuming the car the battery had some issues a few times but they just replaced it FOC no questions asked.
Welp, I hope their cars don’t suck.
Good pun =)
Hmm does anyone remember in Top Gear S17E01 when they did the E-type 50th Anniversary Jeremy said:
“Hammond I’m not sure in 50 years people are gonna have a big birthday party with people going “look at these Dysons aren’t they brilliant”
AFAIK, Dyson Malaysia is only a manufacturing plant, very little R&D. They’re still mainly based in UK.
Manufacturing plant?? Very little R&D??? Hahaha. If u know nothing about something, bettter ask first.
You Dyson staff? What have you to say about this Nov 2014 news?
“Sir James Dyson is to invest a further £1.5bn into research and development to create future products, including funding for a campus at the Dyson UK headquarters in Malmesbury which will create up to 3,000 jobs.
On top of that he will donate £50m for an external research programme with British universities and £200m to expand on an anticipated surge in manufacturing in south-east Asia.
The company invests a third of its profits into research and development and employs 2,000 engineers, of whom half are based in the UK. It plans to launch 100 new electrical products over the next four years.”
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/nov/21/sir-james-dyson-research-development-product-invention
The bulk of the R&D fund goes to UK. Here is mainly to save cost and logistics to serve Far East market. Well, they create employment, not too bad.
I work at dyson and i can say it’s not just little r&d here in malaysia. There are 1000 plus employees in malaysia and most are engineers, only a handful are manufacturing engineers. The rest mostly r&d.
Dyson should focus on R&D in UAV instead of e-cars. We need better propulsion system and better energy storage system!