Dyson’s $700M Quest To Design An Electric Car

Damn, that’s a huge amount of money. With the rise of electric cars as a potential sustainable replacement for fossil fueled cars, Dyson has also attempted to join the competition. However, while thei design of their electronic car, codenamed N526, was successful, other circumstances led to its tragic cancellation. Fast Company has more details: 

We worked with virtual reality to imagine and show interiors and to look at our car in comparison with other vehicles. I aimed for an entirely flat floor. I wanted to have the same adjustable and ergonomic front seat also in row two, the rear seats. 

While you can’t make electric cars for a reasonable price, existing car companies were willing to make them because they help achieve specified exhaust emissions across their product range. So, if they take a loss on electric cars, they make a profit on polluting cars while appearing virtuous. Their cars would undercut the price of our car by a significant margin. By 2019, it was clear that it would be hard for us to compete at our elevated price and risky for us to proceed.

Because of this shifting commercial sand, we made the decision to pull out of production at the last minute. N526 was a brilliant car. Very efficient motors. Very aerodynamic. Wonderful to drive and be driven in. We just couldn’t ever have made money from it, and for all our enthusiasm, we weren’t prepared to risk the rest of Dyson.

Image credit: Dyson