Dyson Launches Electric Car

[poo at Paul's]

I don't get the dyson thing at all tbh.
I think he has been dining out on his first hoover for a long time, they were revolutionary for a time, quirky, broke but have revolutionary (then) pretty much next day services / spares, but everyone caught up. His stuff since though seems to just be fixing problems that are not there, usually not very well!
The fan heater...…..£200 notes..!!!
That ridiculous hand dryer that just dripped stty soapy water all over the floor / walls!
The hair dryer..
Just overpriced stuff for people interested in image over actual function, who later realise the image is pretty poor now.

I know a couple of lads over on the electric car project, one is a proper bellend, and the other used to be ok, but ripped me off for a paltry £150, (borrowed some raw material off me when he ran out for a job, never replaced it and when I went over to chase him up a few months later, he'd closed his business up and fked off!
I do feel genuinely sorry for the rest of them, though.

[WestyCarl]

hyphen said:

VW going in so heavily and getting products out at speed probably made Dyson reconsider.

£2.5bn project at Dyson Vs £90bn for VW.

Dyson were not targeting the same market as VW, actually the complete opposite end. However Dyson did seriously underestimate the complexity (and cost) in manufacturing and selling cars.

[hyphen]

WestyCarl said:

Dyson were not targeting the same market as VW, actually the complete opposite end. However Dyson did seriously underestimate the complexity (and cost) in manufacturing and selling cars.

Sorry, when I said VW I meant VAG as a group.

They have every market covered under the many brands

Dyson would be competing at top end Audi level, if lot then Bentley, Bugatti,Lambo,Porsche.

[DeepEnd]

Brexit cheerleader makes huge misjudgement.

Very sad news for all the workers.

[InitialDave]

gottans said:

Blimey, really feel for the people that work there.

Just cost someone I know their job. Bit rubbish but ah well.

[hyphen]

Sad, but they will mostly be highly skilled engineers, designers etc. As they didn't get anywhere near manufacturing.

So easier for these to find new work then the poor sods at the unskilled end.

[jtremlett]

I really don't get why some on here always seem to glory in any sort of business failure. This is a British company, trying to beat the world on technical innovation and employing a lot of British people paying UK taxes. But more than that, the more such companies exist, the more it encourages students to follow that kind of path and the whole thing potentially snowballs into establishing the UK as centre of excellence for such technology and that can only be a good thing for the UK as a whole, surely?

[RacerMike]

hyphen said:

Sad, but they will mostly be highly skilled engineers, designers etc. As they didn't get anywhere near manufacturing.

So easier for these to find new work then the poor sods at the unskilled end.

Not so much in the current climate. No ones hiring at the moment, and considering a lot of them there were specialist engineers (so things like Vehicle Dynamics) finding a new job is actually going to be quite tough for them.

[anonymous-user]

Disappointing.

My sympathies for any of the Dyson employees who are having to find a new job.

[anonymous-user]

The cars primary market was China. I guess there just is too much competion and less barriers to entry.

[Fundoreen]

wonder why china would be the primary market? wouldn't he be better off selling them in the uk and europe.
His sums seemed to add up at the start so whats changed? Brexit maybe but im no expert.

[InitialDave]

Fundoreen said:

wonder why china would be the primary market?

Good customer base to legislative demands ratio?

[RacerMike]

InitialDave said:

Good customer base to legislative demands ratio?

Legislation over there is actually pretty tough. Easily compatible to Europe.

[hyphen]

Fundoreen said:

wonder why china would be the primary market? wouldn't he be better off selling them in the uk and europe.
His sums seemed to add up at the start so whats changed? Brexit maybe but im no expert.

Dyson makes most of their money abroad, and big in Asia.

In these countries he has already sold millions of £400 hairdryers to the wealthy so knows the customer and market.

[InitialDave]

RacerMike said:

Legislation over there is actually pretty tough. Easily compatible to Europe.

Genuinely surprised at that, I'd expect their red tape to be very... flexible.

[FWIW]

Meh, the car was bound to suck anyway.

[niva441]

RacerMike said:

hyphen said:

Sad, but they will mostly be highly skilled engineers, designers etc. As they didn't get anywhere near manufacturing.

So easier for these to find new work then the poor sods at the unskilled end.

Not so much in the current climate. No ones hiring at the moment, and considering a lot of them there were specialist engineers (so things like Vehicle Dynamics) finding a new job is actually going to be quite tough for them.

With the problems at Aston and other places at the moment there isn't a large number of opportunities for vehicle engineering at the moment.

[Tuna]

I always assumed this was an inner city vehicle, aimed at high pollution places like Beijing, rather than a trans-Europe GT - i.e. a whole different car type to the Audis and Teslas, and hence very much aimed at China.

The assumption was he was trying to build something new, not a 'posh EV'.

[anonymous-user]

InitialDave said:

gottans said:

Blimey, really feel for the people that work there.

Just cost someone I know their job. Bit rubbish but ah well.

Indeed, I got made redundant down that neck of the woods this year, had to up sticks and move back to the London area for work. Those that get kicked out may well have to deal with a salary crunch too if they try and stay local.

[Troubleatmill]

Not a surprise in the slightest.

Their target market was premium - very premium.... But....

Lithium Ion is today's technology. It is not tomorrow's. ( Next generation battery tech is much better )

The technology gained from the experiment is much more of an asset than trying to build a car to market.

As an analogy...
In the last 2 years China has made more steel than the UK has done since before the industrial revolution ( over 200 years ).

The pioneers get the arrows - the settlers get the land.

Dyson made the right call here. They were never going to be able to scale up.