Details about Dyson’s cancelled electric car have been revealed by the company’s founder, James Dyson, who says he drove a prototype of the car.
Dyson told The Sunday Times that the cancelled vehicle was code-named the N526, and would have had an impressive 600-mile (about 965 km) range between charges. This was possible due to solid-state batteries, which can sustain enhanced performance in different climates.
The vehicle was a seven-seater and could go from zero to 62 mph (about 99.7 km/h) in 4.8 seconds. It weighed 2.6 tons and could reach a top speed of 125 mph (about 201 km/h).
Dyson said he spent £500 million (about $853 million CAD) of his own money on the project, but the company abandoned the project in October of last year.
He had told the 600 employees working on the project that: “though we have tried very hard throughout the development process we simply can no longer see a way to make it commercially viable.”
Dyson recently told The Sunday Times that he was disappointed the company had to cancel the project, and stated that “We try things and they fail. Life isn’t easy.”
The company recently spent millions of dollars on a project to produce ventilators for COVID-19 patients in the U.K. and other countries to address shortages. However, the U.K. government informed the company it did not end up needing the ventilators.
Dyson says he doesn’t regret the decision to make the ventilators, and notes other countries may still need the ventilators.
Source: The Sunday Times, The Verge
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