Here’s the now axed $1 billion Dyson electric car

KUALA LUMPUR: Best known for its futuristic-looking and powerful vacuum cleaners, Dyson has shown its electric car, which is now canceled.

The founder of the household electric appliances company Dyson, Sir James Dyson, revealed the car his firm was working on for a while before the project was called-off late last year.

The Dyson seven-seat car, codenamed ‘N526’, came into the picture in 2017, and a total budget of AU$3.7 billion (approx RM 10,528,411,919) was assigned by the company for its development.

In October 2019, the work on the electric car was halted due to the exceeding cost. And by that time, Mr Dyson invested AU$941 million (approx 2,677,451,601) from his end into the project.

The car benefited from the company’s solid-state battery tech, thanks to which the N526 electric car claimed a driving range of approximately 965 km in a single charge.

Mr. Dyson claimed that this interesting long driving range could be possible “even on a freezing February night, on the naughty side of 70 miles per hour on the motorway, with the heater on and the radio at full blast”.

By comparison, Tesla’s seven-seater Model X Long Range on a single charge will travel a maximum of 580 km.

The Dyson N526 electric car claimed outputs of 536 hp and 650 Nm. Also, the motor would have been strong enough to carry the 2600 kg car from 0 to 100 kmph in 4.8 seconds with a top speed of 201 kmph.

Coming to the interior finishes, the styling of the unfinished car looked radical with a heads-up unit and segmented seat for the driver that the company says “floats in front of your face like a hologram”.

The Dyson electric car project was put on the shelf due to the high development costs, with the company saying each unit would have to be priced at AU$282,000 (RM 802,381)to cover the cost.

Though the N526 may never see the light of the day, Mr. James Dyson said he is open to the idea of other automakers using his solid-state technology.

Also Read: Meet VW’s first fully-electric van, eTransporter 6.1