“Maybe we haven’t seen the last of the doomed Dyson car”

Could we yet see the Dyson car on the road, wearing another badge?

Blowing £500 million on his aborted car project doesn’t seem to have done James Dyson too much harm. He still sat proudly in an interior buck of the car and at the top of last weekend’s Sunday Times Rich List boasting an estimated fortune of £16.2 billion.

It was certainly a bold move to can a project that was some way down the line - disappointing for all concerned, including those working on the project. But is the project totally dead, or could we see a knight in shiny (possibly Chinese-made) armour come riding to the rescue?

Dyson’s project seemed to hinge around one thing in particular - his company’s expertise in battery technology. I use it frequently and it seems to work okay (although the less said about the leaky hand driers the better). But does the world really need an electric luxury car - with a price rumoured to be north of £150,000 - that can go for around 600 miles on a single charge? Nothing without four legs and a hump on its back can go that long without needing a pee.

Could the fact that the car would have been over-engineered, and therefore, over priced have been its biggest stumbling block? Is that what stopped it being commercially viable?

Nothing, I suspect, would change Dyson’s mind and persuade him to get the project back on track. But what if a company came in and offered to buy, at the very least, the design. From what we can see in the Sunday Times pictures, it’s a smart, minimalist-looking thing – very Range Rover-esque.

If you already had a scalable electric vehicle platform, with batteries capable of a 300-mile-plus range, it would be interesting if you could add a Dyson ‘top hat’ to it, wouldn’t it? 

Even if you didn’t have the platform yourself, there are enough off-the-shelf alternatives that would be worth looking at. It seems as though Automobili Pininfarina is about to discard the one being developed by Bosch and Benteler in favour of another platform partner – so there’s one, for starters.

Every time I go to a Chinese motor show (and I hope I get to do it again before too long) there are new EV start-ups showing their exotica. And it doesn’t have to be a start-up to be interested, there could be enough interest from some of the new Far-Eastern giants who are cash rich and looking for a European angle to boost their global aspirations.

I, for one, think it would be a great shame if the Dyson car doesn’t see the light of day in some form or other. And surely if Sir James wants to stay on top of the Rich List, he’d be willing to listen to offers for what he started, but felt unable to finish.

Would you still like to see Dyson's electric car hit showrooms? Let us know your thoughts below...

Editor-in-chief

Steve Fowler has been editor-in-chief of Auto Express since 2011 and is responsible for all editorial content across the website and magazine. He has previously edited What Car?, Autocar and What Hi-Fi? and has been writing about cars for the best part of 30 years. 

Recommended

Best home EV chargers 2023
Best home EV charger 2023 - header
Product group tests

Best home EV chargers 2023

We test the top ways to charge your electric or plug-in hybrid car at home
6 Dec 2023
Best electric car charging stations 2024: UK's top charger networks rated by EV owners
Best EV charging stations 2024
Features

Best electric car charging stations 2024: UK's top charger networks rated by EV owners

The bad, the good and the outstanding; you rank the major players in the expanding UK charging network
6 Dec 2023
BYD Atto 3 review
BYD Atto 3 - front tracking
In-depth reviews

BYD Atto 3 review

New kid on the block BYD has hit the ground running with its all-electric family SUV, combining quirky design with a comfortable ride in the Atto 3
5 Dec 2023
Lotus to take-on Tesla Superchargers with its own ultra-rapid EV charging network
Lotus Flash Chargers - full range of chargers and battery storage systems
News

Lotus to take-on Tesla Superchargers with its own ultra-rapid EV charging network

The British sports car maker will start rolling out 450kW rapid chargers in Europe next summer
1 Dec 2023

Most Popular

Deal of the Day: Spacious Skoda Superb is a peerless estate for £223 a month
Skoda Superb Estate - front tracking
News

Deal of the Day: Spacious Skoda Superb is a peerless estate for £223 a month

The Superb is one of our favourite estates and our Deal of the Day for Monday 4 December
4 Dec 2023
‘Forget leasing a car, a cut-price van should be your next everyday vehicle’
Opinion - Fiat Scudo
Opinion

‘Forget leasing a car, a cut-price van should be your next everyday vehicle’

With some huge savings to be had, Mike Rutherford thinks a van could be the perfect vehicle
3 Dec 2023
New Hyundai i20 facelift 2023 review: subtle updates for an already stylish supermini
Hyundai i20 - front tracking
Road tests

New Hyundai i20 facelift 2023 review: subtle updates for an already stylish supermini

Hyundai has given the i20 a series of mid-life updates, but you might struggle to notice some of them
5 Dec 2023