British entrepreneur and bagless vacuum cleaner extraordinaire James Dyson has run into a little problem with his plan to reveal a supposedly radical electric car in 2020—and then later 2021: the money just isn’t there. And he’s calling off the whole project.
This news comes from an all-staff email acquired by The Verge that discussed Dyson and his board of directors failed to find a buyer for the project.
From the email:
The Dyson automotive team has developed a fantastic car: they have been ingenious in their approach while remaining faithful to our philosophies. However, though we have tried very hard throughout the development process we simply can no longer see a way to make it commercially viable.
This is a challenging time for our colleagues and I appreciate your understanding and sensitivity as we consult with those who are affected. This is not a product failure, or a failure of the team, for whom this news will be hard to hear and digest. Their achievements have been immense – given the enormity and complexity of the project.
It was an incredibly ambitious project to begin with, one that has suffered its fair share of setbacks as the days crawled closer and closer to the intended release date. Because Dyson was developing solid-state batteries—something that isn’t currently prevalent in the market yet—the project could have given the company a leg up on other manufacturers had it come to fruition.
Nearly 600 people were working on the EV project, many of whom Dyson has stated via email that he will be attempting to reallocate within the company.
This a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.