What would win? 1 Tesla-sized Dyson, or 3 Dyson-sized Teslas?

“A car named after a vacuum cleaner for Lamborghini money”? I don’t know. Why not? Lamborghini started out as a tractor manufacturer.

"“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” - Henry Ford

Through my wife, I know of an engineer who left a well paid job, to join Dyson's project. He was consequently out of a job. I'm not blaming Dyson, but did he not learn anything from Tesla's gargantuan battle against, fossil-fuelled, 'Big Auto'? It was obviously not going to be a walk in the park, was it?

Holy smokes, just dawned on me that Rory is a good enough journalist that he needn't be hooning about to keep my interest piqued

Love these type of vids!

I wrote an article for a business magazine on the foolhardiness of Dyson's electric car project. I called it his Sinclair C5 moment. He had experimental battery technology which he was trying to commercialize at light speed. Most other solid state battery researchers thought that the potential for a commercial battery was five to ten years longer than the timescale Dyson had given himself. Dyson also chose to start from scratch. His potential competitors, the existing car manufacturers, already had production lines. His potential competitors had existing car models. He was building something completely new when his competitors were engaged in product modification. He had small capacity. His potential competitors had huge capacity to produce. Dyson was developing his own battery technology, not linking to an existing supplier. Again more cost. Dyson was trying to develop a new battery technology, smaller lighter batteries but with faster charging times and greater capacity. There were lots of rumours that said batteries were unable to provide the power output demanded by the Dyson Car. this is exactly the problem Sinclair had with the C5. Sinclair had developed a new battery technology (something he had been working on for decades) BUT his batteries weren't ready for commercial launch so the C5 was a busted flush that had to be pedalled up the slightest of hills. Dyson could have gone into a joint venture to supply his new battery technology to the existing car industry. By focusing on the battery alone rather than trying to build a new car from scratch, he may have got better results. Instead, at the launch of his car project, Dyson chose to slag off the existing car industry and go it alone. It was always going to be a problem for Dyson to launch his new car at a competitive price. He was operating at the edge of commercial viability with his battery technology add a lack of economies of scale and existing vehicle parts -suspension, brakes, etc, his car was always going to e hugely expensive and produced in small batches. Just look at the issues Tesla had when demand exceeded their production capacity.

For many years I designed and manufactured systems for commercial vehicles. I loved working on the most complex and unusual ones. It is fun to invent some new way of making a thing work. It was quire engrossing. The very hardest part of that job was knowing when to walk away, when to call a customer and admit that I couldn't make a gizmo that fit their requirements. Often I would go back and revisit these rare failures and try again.. and again, often spending unjustifiably large sums. I didn't have Dyson's budget but I understand the emotion, and I feel his pain.

puts what tesla has achieved in perspective.

$150,000 for a luxury SUV from a guy that sells $39.95 Hidden-Bladed, "BLADE-LESS" fans for $500.00! And you are surprised?

This basically just shows how good Tesla has become as an EV manufacturer.

Dyson is way ahead of the time!!! This project will surely comeback, it must! He's a visionary, some people don't understand. We need such people, the world needs such people.

Very informative video! Love that it never looks like your reading from a teleprompter. You always seem to do thorough research on your subject.

Rory, great video, clear, concise, informative and entertaining. Good job. Thanks

‘Little bit too emotionally attached’ huh...the man spent half a BILLION pounds on it!!!

I really enjoy your “mini documentary” videos. You’re an excellent presenter for them.

Another great and informative video, keep up the good work Rory 👍👍👍

A good project manager would have known the cost of things very early in the project. Something shady was going on here.

If batteries were the biggest cost. I Wonder why he didn’t just trim the range down to say 3-400miles this way he has a product to start off. Sale some units and in future release your 1000mile car once the market is more familiar with the brand. Perhaps he tried to do too much with his first product.

"Who on want to buy a car named after a vacuum cleaner for Lamborghini money? Rory out here flexing on us with MBA level food for thought 😂

Something you didn’t mention Rory - Patents! All of this design and innovation is not completely wasted. I imagine Dyson have created innovations they will hope to share with other car companies during this project. Motors, batteries for example. I expect Dyson will end up recouping and in fact making money from this in the long run.

@1:30 “who on earth is buying a car named after a vacuum cleaner for Lamborghini money” GOLD 😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣

This all sounds like a lot of BS marketing

"If anyone can make an electric car work, it's him (James Dyson)." Elon Musk has entered the chat.

For someone who is such a brilliant businessman, you'd expect him to have figured out the business case for this car long before he did.

i think this is one of the times Dyson got it all wrong.. instead of trying to make one of the most high quality expensive heaviest cars in the world.. he should of concentrated on developing one of the cheapest high quality lightest cars in the world ... he owns advanced plastic mouldings facility's .. he owns advanced battery factory's.. and he owns advanced electric motor manufactures.. he had the technology and the mind to make something different .. but sadly he went for beefing up something that was already there

"If anyone can make an electric car work it's him, surely!" No. Not at all. We generally struggle to understand that the automotive industry is one, if not THE most complex industry in the world. The level of optimization it has gone through in the last century it's something not easy to comprehend, the amount of regulations and standards it has to meet is overwhelming, and it doesn't stop here... all of this while mantaining rigorous quality control AND the production rates of a can factory, oh, and don't forget the post-sell support and assistance and the practically non existent margins in all but a few segments. That's why Tesla still struggles to achieve the QC of even the cheapest japanese or european citycar, and that's why NO, having distrupted the vacuum cleaner market is not a qualification to make a big splash in this incredibly hard industry sector.

More videos with studies like this! All new content has been 🔥

Man like Rory dropping knowledge!

Haha. If its the same batteries he used in his cordless vacuum cleaners then it would never be off the charger.

He could have pulled it off with government loans like Tesla, and having high end models to begin with for early adopters to offset the cost.

Tesla is creating a full package, owning the car the batteries, the data, self-drive, software, insurance, and data network ie Starlink. it could be a bit like Amazon in that the full fast delivery package becomes so good no one else can compete. Maybe Dyson's realization is it's not just hardware.

Cool vid. Very nicely put together. I would feel more sorry for Dyson, I appreciate his ambition, but having owned a couple of Dyson prods myself, I personally think they’re actually not that special, overpriced and overhyped.

Great piece Rory 👍🏾

About the 600 mile range, that might not be a huge asset in the UK, but in the US, that would really relieve much of the range anxiety around electric cars. It is not all that uncommon to drive 1000 miles a day for a long trip here, so the 600 mile range would have made the recharging stops so much less frequent.

Car making business is a very heavy capital investment. Tesla spent more than $10 billions to build up all supply chain and factory over a period of 10+ years. In some quarter, Tesla spent like $1billion on capx. Dyson lost $500M is like nothing.

Serious review from the man himself

Dyson, the tax avoiding arch-BRexiter blowing half a £bill? Hahahahahahaaaaa....

Nicely done, Again! It's refreshing to have an automotive journalist be even handed when talking about environmental concerns, and not whinge and moan about the reality that our current car tech is problematic. I could see you taking this even further, would love to see you interview Dyson about this, I think there are good stories ti be heard!

The Dyson equivalent of the Sinclair C5.

His hoovers aren’t that good so I wouldn’t spend any money on one of his cars.

Shows how amazing Tesla is, they started from scratch. All respect to Dyson.

For Dyson to sell the product in the UK the 600 mile range doesn’t make sense. However if his intended audience is the USA then it makes total sense. My children just came up from Texas to see me, that trip was 875mi. one way, about 14 hours nonstop driving. Even with shorter trips you would still have to figure in excess power for air conditioning, heating, mountainous terrains, battery pack heaters, etc, etc,.

I've always been of the impression that dyson products are overrated , on a different note the guy who presented this video is was excellent , very informative .

Our family drives to Munich from London nearly every year! (Supply & Demand 😂)

Hi Rory! I just have a question. Couldn't James Dyson have NOT made the car so ambitious since it was going to have some cool features(like the range etc.)? Couldn't he have made the car for example a 5 seater and not want to make it have a 600 mile range? What if he didn't make the car as cool as it looks and step it down a bit so it would be more affordable and not £150,000 just to make profit of it. Also, couldn't he have made the car with another automotive company that was willing to invest in this project? Finally about the exhaust he made, couldn't he use it if he were to make a diesel SUV instead of an electric so the cost lowers? I mean he could have tried to sell it again now since going green and diesel is a problem now. Thanks and I hope you can answer my questions! Regards, Alex

What is clear is that Dyson didn’t know how to build high end electronic systems from scratch nor did they know how to build their own battery system, in other words he didn’t know how to actually make the thing work. However I think the problem was that in the UK they treated the project as a sure thing. That grew expectations to levels that were not achievable

Dyson - the fact that he is Britain's wealthiest person is utterly shocking

Great video I've never been convinced by anything made by Dyson In my mind Dyson products are just too expensive for what they are and they feel like gimmicks wrapped in stylish shaped plastic

You can't argue that Dyson's heart was in the right place.

A almost 8 min vídeo that felt like 2 min Great structure, kept my attention, congrats!

Very nice summary of the story. I work in the Auto industry as an engineer and followed Dyson from the start of its EV project. They really were wildly naive from the start. Saying they were "Ambitious" was a more kind way of putting it. From the start, senior level Dyson employees were ringing alarm bells that the EV project could bring the company down. Just read some of the Glassdoor reviews. A more fundamental issue was their urge to re-engineer every aspect of the car. They were literally trying to re-invent the wheel. This is where Tesla excels; Tesla leans heavily on Tier1 suppliers to bring in existing hardware with no radical customizations. Instead of all-out hardware superiority, Tesla also banked on software and they are 5 years ahead of even the big Auto players. Dyson EV had no chance. Dyson does well with their premium consumer products and they are really nice to use. However, from an objective technical view, they are over engineered, over priced & not that robust (a philosophy that does not work for new EV companies). What vacuum cleaner does the local car wash use.... its a Karcher, Hoover or a Henry.

As we know that he is a major tax dodger, we can't exactly say that he sunk his personal money now, can we?

Dyson is so admirable. He’s so passionate in what he does. Hats off to this great man even though the car project didn’t work out.

Seems to me Dyson needs to re engineer his car. One loose weight Two settle for a less miles per battery charge Three offer a 10 year warranty. Hes then got a winner

It's a very size efficient car. Three row wagon/crossover the size of a midsize sedan. The flat floor frees up space inside. I love they also put in minivan styled sliding doors.

It might have had a 600 mile range if they got around to inventing the battery.

He can't even make his cordless vacuums last more than 50 mins how he gonna make an EV

Great stuff. Those comments about automanufactures are spot on. The emissions lab is see as a necessary evil, an unwanted overhead.

Rory ... I miss you insights on TG. I am glad I can get them here. Well presented as usual.

So the Cybertruck 3 motor ~$70k and Dyson $200k so total product proposition failure. His target should have been Defender X P400 ~£100k that was easy to beat with an EV with Magna and Ineos on board?

Rory: “surely, if anyone can make it work it’s him!” Musk: “Hold my 🍺”

Great informative video Rory. 😊👍🏻

600 mile car journey does make sense. It makes sense since people want to "charge" their car less and have the freedom knowing that it will run out of juice after 600 miles. I feel Dyson should be in talks with TOGG and now allow his technology to go to waste.

So even after Elon showing them the way a decade ago,they cant replicate what hes done. ...at the same time creating Space X

Or, smoke & mirrors that was never going to work?

You've hit the nail on the head with the partnership angle; Dyson should've partnered up with an established part of the supply chain for EVs or at least another manufacturer. Even the mighty Tesla compromised on this; the first Tesla-powered EV had a Toyota badge, the second was a modified Lotus design and the third, while very much a Tesla design, had Mercedes switchgear in the interior because they knew what corners could be cut at that stage. The range-you-think-you-need is another good point; people don't actually need to go as far as they think they do in one go. But they do need to be able to charge up as quick as they can with an internal combustion engine, which currently isn't possible no matter how much you spend on an EV. So perhaps Dyson should've looked at creating a charger/battery combination that could rival refuelling times of a petrol/diesel pump. That would be truly revolutionary.

it's always good to have options and competition so that buyers/customers can gain

If Dyson was 30 years younger he may be the next steve jobs

I couldn't afford to buy one but I would love to own one. I'd pick that over a Tesla anyday. I know I am going to aggravate all you Tesla fanboys, but I think Tesla is overrated. There. I said it

Good to see you Rory, only just found this - I'm looking forward to going through the rest of them

The battery technology for cars is getting better but still needs a lot more improvement to become more popular and a more viable option

Did the Dyson suck 🤪 It only ran for 14 mins 😂

Dyson hand dryer yet but Hoovers no I’ve got 1 in my shed and I get back to Miele

I love these videos. Rory is comfortably one of the best and most original car journalists. Awesome stuff

What I know is that the price of 'most' electric cars is prohibitively high for most of us. It occurred to me that if I bought a five year old Nissan Leaf costing roughly 5 grand, I could then buy a new battery from Nissan and virtually have a new car. I have read that Nissan will sell you the lastest battery they have for roughly 5 grand also. So all in all it costs somewhere close to 10 grand; that could be pounds or dollars, Which by my reckoning is considerably cheaper than most EV's out there. And apart from anything else, who in there right mind buys a new car these days......

_Why go for a 7-seater 🤔 aren't the majority of car trips just the driver, maybe 1 passenger.._

Narrator: "If anyone can make it work, it's him surely." Elon Musk: I beg to differ

Great piece of journalism Rory. Never know about the Dyson exhaust.

Always dismissed the idea of a car made by a "vacuum cleaner company" but hearing more about the man himself i must say i really reapect his approach and ingenuity. Really informative vid btw👌

Dyson killed his EV project when he realised he doesn't have any of the expertise to make one. Also, Dyson products are worthless: they dont work well and die young. We owned two of his expensive vacuum cleaners and none cleaned well but both broke in a short time. Our Miele vacuum cleaner is 6 years old and still looks and acts new. And it was cheaper than a Dyson, strangely. I think Dysons are for morons.

With his level of innovation, a car (even with his name) was an exciting prospect. But yeah, probably too ambitious. Despite the popularity of SUV's (questionable), maybe his efforts should have gone more towards reinventing the sedan. (ie Jaguar I Pace). SUV's I feel are over played. Yeah you have a more commanding view of the road. But if everyone is in a SUV, you're back to where you started. Also, with European roads, a SUV is overkill.

Nice video as always. Well balanced and informative. When ever the lock down is over you should interview these CEO's.

Here in Holland, we know that Dyson stands for design and quality, ... two great purchasing motivators. Even for a car like this. For the wealthier ones among us, it could become "the thing to own" in a niche market, so I'm sure there would be buyers for a Dyson car. Pity he didn't make it. Nice review though; I enjoyed watching it. :-)

Dyson knows how to make money. He wants to make profit like the profit he makes on vacuum cleaners. Tesla are losing billions and not going to go to real profit ever. If he is saying that he needs to sell a car for $180000 so this is the price Tesla needs to sell the model 3

This is basically a regurgetation of the CAR manazine story from about 2 months ago. They even show the pictures and pages in absence of any direct contact with James Dyson. Let's put it down to working limitations due to Covid as you are usually much better on it than this. In terms of cost Dyson is right that he won't make money. Tesla almost never have and the mainstream car manufacturers are struggling to make viable cost effective alternatives for consumers. For VW, Ford etc. think of it like this - cost of an EV = the ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicle plus/minus about $12k. Growing numbers of customers are interested in EVs but until Total Cost of Ownership (through govt incentives and economies of scale) is at or close to parity to ICE then low take up and residual values will hold us all back from mass adoption.

Great video Rory 💪

A Dyson vacuum in India costs around 870$ and expecting a reasonable priced car from dyson is unimaginable...

and that's why Tesla is so far ahead of the rest. Dyson arrived 10 years too late

I think you are at the top of the ladder for this kind of presentation. Excellent show. Every word interesting. No time wasting. And I think Mr Dyson should work towards the other end of the line. Just as Mr Ford did. A car for the people. Affordable.

I like this guy’s videos. Definitely subscribing since I haven’t so far, as I loved his video on Tesla, Alfa Romeo, and FCA. I like Dyson as a company as well. It’s a shame the car won’t come to fruition in the foreseeable future, but I’m glad there’s a worldwide movement towards electrification of the auto market. Looking forward to more sustainable energy as well!

wow a car that cleans itself and sweeps the streets want 1

That's 500 Million of your money, my money and all the people who have purchased Dyson products.

Rory has come along leaps & bounds as a presenter these last few years, i always liked him but lately he's really really good

Dyson should make some type of air purifier for big cities

Would definitely like to see the project comeback

I can see an opportunity here. We have a state of the art car factory in Swindon ( the now defuct Honda plant), only 20 miles from Dysons HQ. We have unemployed engineers and technicians who could go back to work. The government should offer to fund the rest of the project, and Dyson could agree a deal, that if it makes money, they'll pay it back. He could scale down the design to a 5 seater with a 400 mile range and probably match Tesla. Then from this scale it down even further a 4 seater with a 200 mile range for sub 30k and he's got a winner. To have these two assets so close together and mothball both of them seems crazy to me!

I am an early adapter. The primary reason I bought a 2014 Model S, P-85 was because of the Supercharger network Tesla was developing even back then. Today that system allows me to recharge (for free for as long my P-85 exists ... a benefit no longer available) on the Interstate system at stations no further than 150 miles apart. The reality of my Tesla being a quality, over 90% efficient, vehicle notwithstanding.

I love that Mr Dyson always has the same expression

A Brazilian dude made It out of a wash machine's engine and gel batteries, sometimes peopple doesn't matter How smart they are, they try to reinvent the Wheel.