@philmus1

3 years ago

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.

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