Sir James Dyson: 'I won't rule out a return to electric cars'

Billionaire abandoned £2.5bn car project last year but as new details emerge of the design the inventor says he still has electric dreams

Sir James Dyson with a prototype of his car
Sir James Dyson with a prototype electric car car Credit: Getty

Sir James Dyson is ready to have another go at building an electric car - despite abandoning his first attempt after earmarking £2.5bn for the project.

The billionaire vacuum entrepreneur appeared to have given up on his driving dream just months ago, saying his plans were not commercially viable.

But he refused to rule out a return to the transport industry in an interview with Autocar magazine.

Sir James said: “We only go into markets if we’re convinced we have a good idea.

“But if we thought we had the idea and the technology to make a difference, we’d do it. Or certainly consider it.

“Transport interests me: this is not an end to Dyson’s interest in mobility.”

In October Sir James pulled the plug on the car following several years of development by a team of 500 engineers.

Dyson car interior
The car was intended to have a radical and sleek interior

Dyson - which is relocating its headquarters to Singapore, where Sir James has bought the city's most expensive apartment - pumped what is thought to be more than £1bn into the car.

It also set aside massive further resources for the project, hoping to harness its battery and electric motor experience built up producing cordless vacuum cleaners.

As recently as last May the billionaire was telling staff the car would be ready for launch in 2021, while urging them to maintain secrecy around the project. 

Sir James previously said he had dreamed of building a car for more than 20 years. 

He had even registered patents and purchased a disused Second World War airfield near Dyson’s Wiltshire headquarters to carry out test drives in secrecy.

In an internal memo leaked last year, the inventor said plans were on track for a 2021 launch of a car containing “fundamentally new technologies and some inventive leaps” that would be “entirely designed by Dyson, manufactured by Dyson, and sold by Dyson”.

However, this pledge to keep work within the company is thought to have contributed to making the project unviable, with a £150,000 price tag for the car.

Not outsourcing to established industry suppliers is likely to have jacked up costs for the vehicle, which was intended to have a 150kWh lithium-ion battery giving it a 600-mile range.

Some board members at privately-owned Dyson are understood to have been urging the billionaire to give up on the car since late 2018, realising it was unrealistic. 

Sir James also blamed the so-called dieselgate scandal for the project’s failure. Financing did not stack up as major car companies pumped hundred of billions into electric vehicles after Volkswagen was revealed to have cheated emissions tests, causing a backlash against conventionally powered cars.

Badged simply as “Dyson”, Sir James’s design was a 16ft long, seven-seater SUV with high ground clearance thaws to 2ft diameter wheels.

Dyson car
The car was intended to be 16ft long, giving it huge amounts of space inside

The long wheelbase of the car was aimed at making it attractive to the Chinese market, where extra space is coveted.

Inside, the car was meant to have a radical interior with futuristic seats, and a heads-up system planned to display information like a hologram in front of the driver. 

The billionaire told employees that he was cancelling the car having failed to find a buyer for the project. Sir James said he expected the prototypes to end up in a museum. 

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