Vacuum-maker Dyson is reportedly working on an electric car

There was uproar a few years ago when Dyson moved their manufacturing out of the UK to Malaysia. I imagine that they will use their Malaysian factories too, further down the line, should the electric car product prove to be successful.

I imagine that the styling and colours that Dyson will use for their car will be very different to anything that has gone on before, the result will not look like a 'normal' car.

Dyson also have a loyal and rich customer base, people that trust the brand and see qualities in the brand that they would want in a car, e.g. dependability, getting the job done.

The article only really cites something vague about battery R+D, that really need not imply a car. Dyson have a lot of batteries in their products and investing in that area makes sense for their product line up. Better batteries, with more power and portability, could be a major USP for them, no need for car side-project. If this were their intent, the R+D plus initial manufacturing facility would cost many millions more than this level of government grant. The sums involved in this are not huge and it could be for just 'batteries for hoovers' that they are making.

smhg• 10 years ago

Not meant to be negative, just another take on some of your points:

* Dyson has a factory in a country with low wages.

* Dyson uses modern styling in their product lines.

* Dyson has a strong brand.

(* Dyson knows about electrics)

It sounds like you can replace Dyson with quite a lot of names.

One of the human brain's strengths is pattern recognition. Wether true or not, we see patterns everywhere. But that applies to my comment too ;)

hayksaakian• 10 years ago

Sure. How many other vacuum companies are also making electric cars?

dave20004• 10 years ago

Sure, but to listen to Dyson's marketing, you'd think it was all made in the UK.

basicplus2• 10 years ago

I hope the car will be better than its vacuum cleaners as they are very cheaply made and of very low quality. I know this from repairing a number of them. To be frank you are better off throwing them away and buying a better quality make.

onion2k2• 10 years ago

That's a sort of inverted survivorship bias - you've seen "a number" break, presumably from similar usage if they're yours, or at least similar temperature/humidity/etc if they're from around where you live if they're from your friends or customers, and you feel that translates to all Dysons everywhere. The reality is that you've seen at most a few thousand if you're repairing them professionally. That probably isn't a big enough sample size to know if they're consistently bad.

I've owned one Dyson, but it's been going for 6 years and I've never had a problem with it. That doesn't lead me to believe they never break though.

spacehome2• 10 years ago

I assure you a few thousand is enough to know if they're consistently bad.

dave20004• 10 years ago

I don't think the sample size has to be very high. Tv viewing figures aren't achieved by sampling millions of viewers.

alblue• 10 years ago

Having owned around six different dysons (including the washing machine) over the last couple of decades, I can safely say that in general they are rock solid. In fact they are pretty user serviceable and can replace quite a few parts yourself should you need to.

In fact, the only time I have had an issue is on one of the first generation hand helds where the battery pack contacts became slightly loose, but a phone call to dyson support and a wipe clean with vinegar on the contacts resulted in the fix.

Anecdata is fine but you can have both directions, and I'm not sure a repair shop observing seeing popular vacuum cleaners is the best place to start from.

Angostura• 10 years ago

Had one for 10 years now. When will I notice the lack of quality?

onRoadAgain243• 10 years ago

As soon as you buy something else, more silent, better results, a third the price. Just read any independent test.

squinn2• 10 years ago

Is Clive Sinclair available for comment? ..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hco_Av2DJ8o

dave20004• 10 years ago

Didn't he choke to death on a loose QL key?

harryf• 10 years ago

Looked for a funny Sinclair C5 videos - was not disappointed - http://youtu.be/2fbzSsHx93U

rmason2• 10 years ago

The British government doesn't have a great track record funding automobile company's.

Remember the DeLorean? Least John DeLorean had loads of auto industry experience.

onion2k2• 10 years ago

For a short time in the early 1980s the British government part owned Jaguar, Land Rover and Mini through British Leyland. It didn't work very well (Tory government versus heavily unionised car industry) but it went better than DeLorean.

pjc502• 10 years ago

The UK actually does great at making cars - so long as they're either small volume boutique supercars, racecars or the factory is managed by foreigners (such as Nissan).

The big factories were sunk by their appalling labour relations, for which management must take some blame.

petecooper• 10 years ago

Interesting. I used to know a vacuum cleaner repair technician who told me (anecdotally, no citation I can provide) that in her shop's experience Dyson accounted for about 5% of sales and 95% of repairs.

pjc502• 10 years ago

Maybe they're expensive enough to be worth repairing. They're quite complex but seem durable enough.

philjohn2• 10 years ago

They do offer a good warranty ... the cyclone unit on our old one got so clogged up after cleaning up from some DIY that it didn't work adequately. We phoned them up, they listened to the noise and diagnosed it there and then. A few days later we had a brand new cyclone unit delivered. The thing was 4 years old at that point.

_ph_• 10 years ago

This is great news. The car industry could really benefit from completely fresh competitors beyond Tesla. And whatever some people say, Dyson did pioneer the bagless vacuum cleaners, and their technology works. It would be cool if they could come up with some completely new how a "car" is made/designed.

Beyond the environmental benefits, electric cars allow companies to completely rethink car design as all the constraints from combustion engines are removed. I am excited to see what the next 5-10 years will bring. Thats also why I would like to see Apple make a car, just to see with what new ideas or designs they might come up.

onRoadAgain243• 10 years ago

On the contrary. Dyson has not won any independent vacuum tests but usually ranks in the bottom half. Dyson is high price, mainly marketing with gimmicks not results. Dyson is the self marketing part of Jobs without the genius.

dave20004• 10 years ago

Exactly. First thing I thought was "boy, those cars are going to be expensive", and, unlike Tesla, the advertising is going to be everywhere.

monk_e_boy2• 10 years ago

They are expensive. But they work fine and they are ingeniously made. Each little bit can be taken off and cleaned. It's a very 'open' design for the user.

Al-Khwarizmi2• 10 years ago

Won't argue because I haven't seen any tests, but I am surprised to read this because my current one is a Dyson and it cleans way better than any other one I've had before. It takes me like 5 times less to clean a room and the result is better, especially when carpets are involved.

It could be that I've just always chosen badly though. Which vacuum would you recommend?

PepeGomez• 10 years ago

Dyson is the best vaccuum cleaner I've ever had.

MarkMc• 10 years ago

I bought a stylish Dyson vacuum cleaner once - one that didn't have a bag to hold dirt, so it 'wouldn't lose suction'.

It was exceedingly painful to empty - I had to take it outside because opening it spewed dust everywhere, then I had to put on gloves and scoop the dust and gunk out of the unit and put it into a garbage bag. Every time I did that I hated myself for buying into the 'bagless' Dyson marketing bullshit.

anexprogrammer• 10 years ago

[Citation needed] Do you have links to these independent tests you cite?

A cyclone is a long established method of dust removal industrially, and an efficient method of doing so. Compared to a typical Hoover at the time they were introduced they are orders of magnitude better and more reliable. Since then Hoover and all the other manufacturers have basically copied, as far as they are able, everything Dyson does. Hardly indicative of a terrible product.

They can lack longevity due to use of plastics that tend to age harden over a decade, but that's about all I can fault them for, aside from moving production to Malaysia - but that's hardly unique in manfacturing.

Some of their other products have been less successful - the now discontinued washing machine was another transformative product miles ahead of alternatives. Sadly they couldn't make them profitably. The fan heater is much harder to like being 10x the cost of alternatives but not 10x better at heating a room.

Dyson cleaners frequently get Consumer's Association (UK independent home appliance tests) Best Buy. They are always towards the top as far as performance goes.

NiceTry588• 10 years ago

Really? Anonymous posting with no links?

Yeah, gonna take this opinion seriously.

Nice try, Horst.

cant_kant• 10 years ago

" Dyson did pioneer the bagless vacuum cleaners Dyson did pioneer the bagless vacuum cleaners"

On the contrary bagless vacuum cleaners have existed since the 1920's, around 20 years before Sir James Dyson OM CBE FRS FREng was born.

As for cyclonic vacuum cleaners Filter Queen have been making cyclonic vacuum cleaners since 1930. http://www.filterqueen.com/ourstories.php

Dyson is the Bose of vacuum cleaners, excelling in hyping their products to the gullible.

By doing that, they perform a number of valuable functions. They return profits to shareholders; they keep their staff employed ;they part the proverbial fool from his money.

Here is a detailed quantitative comparision of the Dysons to another more conventional brand. https://www.greatvacs.com/education/KirbyVsDysonVacuumReview...

mrfusion2• 10 years ago

I'd actually like a full sized , full power battery powered vacuum. I think that's my biggest mental hurdle to vacuuming. Dealing with that cord.

phireal• 10 years ago

We have an Electrolux full size battery powered vacuum and not having to deal with the lead is the change which had been most effective in getting us to clean more. It's also great for cleaning the car (especially as our model can be changed from an upright to a cylinder vacuum).

mrfusion2• 10 years ago

Wow I didn't know that existed! Thanks

ryan-allen• 10 years ago

I heard it's gonna suck. Ha ha!

Ah well in all seriousness I have a few of their products and they are really good.

Vacuum-maker Dyson is reportedly working on an electric car

Related Stories