Dyson scraps plans to release electric car

Dyson has failed to make an electric car that can be marketed profitably, the company has informed its employees. The car the company was working on should have appeared in 2021.

The founder of Dyson, the inventor James Dyson, has informed employees in an email of the scrapping of the project, which involved 2.5 billion pounds, or 2.78 billion euros. The BBC writes about the announcement. He did not give a precise reason why the project was ‘commercially not feasible’.

Attempts to find a buyer for the project have been unsuccessful. The facilities in both Singapore and the United Kingdom are now closed. Dyson continues to work on the battery technology used for the car. The car project employed 523 employees. The company is trying to transfer them to other divisions, such as those for vacuum cleaners and hair dryers.

Dyson announced in 2017 that it was working on its own electric car and in October 2018, the company announced it was building a factory in Singapore. Since then, vehicles have been built and tested, including on a test track in the United Kingdom. The car should have appeared in 2020 according to the initial schedule, but after a delay it should have happened in 2021.

Image of car from Dyson’s patent application