The eagle-eyed and patient readers at the Guardian found something interesting buried in the dense but nicely laid out National Infrastructure and Delivery Plan from the UK’s Infrastructure and Project’s Authority: well-known color-loving vacuum-maker Dyson is planning on building a car.
The actual paragraph has since been removed, but here’s what it said:
“The government is funding Dyson to develop a new battery electric vehicle at their headquarters in Malmesbury, Wiltshire. This will secure £174m of investment in the area, creating over 500 jobs, mostly in engineering.”
My formidable comprehension skills tell me that yes, Dyson is developing a new battery electric vehicle, with at least some help from public money.
Dyson has quite a legacy to beat, with the most notable previous all-British-developed electric vehicle, the Sinclair C5, still seared into everyone’s mind. It’ll be hard to top the legendary C5, of course, but maybe Dyson is planning on such exotic things as a roof and more than 1 HP that could give it the edge over the famous Sinclair.
I’m actually quite excited that Dyson is developing an electric car. They have a great history of designing products that are innovative and take risks, they’re not afraid of vivid colors, they have over a decade’s experience designing and building advanced, efficient electric motors, and they bought Sakti3, a battery maker with some pretty radical technology that James Dyson himself has called a “breakthrough.”
Also, this may finally mean both the development of a car that uses a huge ball as a wheel, and a car with a specific ‘pet’ version.