As ambitious projects go, Sir James Dyson’s plan to build a car is surely the most ambitious in the industry, comfortably eclipsing last week’s announcement of chemical billionaire Jim Ratcliffe’s plans to launch an off-roader inspired by the Land Rover Defender.
The vacuum cleaner maker is not only planning to launch a car, but is doing so completely on its own, constructing a new factory in which to build the car, powering it with battery technology no car maker has come even close to cracking, and then following it up with a range of other models.
Full story: Dyson to build electric car from 2020
Little is known about the car itself, let alone whether that initial £2billion investment includes the sales and marketing, and dealer/distribution network to take the cars to the masses Dyson needs to become a major player in the electric car game.
Unlike vacuum cleaners, making cars requires a quite extraordinary amount of legislation to adhere to - not just on emissions, but more crucially on crash safety and getting a whole host of highly-complex systems to talk to one another, and reliably. This is hugely costly and crucial stuff to get right, before you even think about what it’s going to look like. Dyson’s early vacuum cleaners were not known for reliability.
Sir James Dyson has recruited some good eggs in which to make the project a success, his star signing being Aston Martin’s old development chief Ian Minnards, a man well versed in creating world-class cars against the odds. For reference, see the Aston Martin V12 Vantage S.
Feature: Sir James Dyson on what cars really need
Like its vacuum cleaners, the Dyson car will be a premium product, and priced as such. That means it will be competing head-on with the industry’s biggest players, who by the Dyson car’s 2020 launch date will each have highly desirable and viable electric cars of their own in production, and the networks in which to sell them established.
Unlike Tesla, Dyson will not have a headstart on the competition.
Remember, Tesla has never made a serious profit, and to this point has only been selling larger, more profitable models with the likes of the Model S and Model X, rather than the Model 3 and its smaller margins.
Dyson’s investment will take years to recoup, and the firm will have to hold its nerve in the face of the huge losses the project will initially mount up. For an insight into how stressful it can be to launch a new car company on your own from scratch, watch Elon Musk in the excellent 2011 film Revenge of the Electric Car.
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