back to article UK's Dyson to vacuum up 300 staffers for its electric car division

British sucker-tech biz Dyson’s pivot to electric cars continues as the company announced today that it is creating 300 new jobs in its ‘leccy vehicle division. The vacuum cleaner company, founded by James Dyson, is hiring 300 engineers to join its 400-strong electric car team, according to the BBC. The company declared its …

  1. }{amis}{
    Gimp

    ££££

    I hope their cars are cheaper compared to the rest of the market than the vacuum cleaners.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: ££££

      And last a bit longer, and aren't made from weak, squeaky plastics.

      1. Oflife

        Re: ££££

        I bought a very used DC14 a few years ago for under £40. It does indeed squeak and rattle somewhat, mainly due to age. But not one part is cracked or broken and it does a great job. The plastic put me off at first but it seems very tough.

        Maybe more recent models have cut corners?

        1. Pen-y-gors

          Re: ££££

          The cleaner is fine,if a tad expensive. (Current models are several tads expensive)

          But it would be nice if the could build a recharger that doesn't die after 2 years and 4 days - repeatedly. Just about to buy my third.

  2. Zog_but_not_the_first
    Trollface

    Bet your life...

    They will have a cyclone, and a ball.

    1. Gordon 10
      Thumb Up

      Re: Bet your life...

      If they build them like those transparent balls from Jurassic World I'd be up for a Dysonmobile.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Bet your life...

      And an annoying smug Advert...

  3. Fizzle
    FAIL

    Dyson ain't quite wot it used-er to be

    To wit:

    1. Cheap plasticky hair-dryer costing £300/$300 - does anyone pay that for hot air?

    2. Dyson animal vacuum that uses off-the-shelf Panasonic motors and not the Dyson ones.

    Not to mention style over substance!

    I rest my case. Gawd knows what the cars'll be like. Get yer feet ready a la Fred Flintstone..

    1. firefly

      Re: Dyson ain't quite wot it used-er to be

      Someone's been watching AvE

      1. quxinot

        Re: Dyson ain't quite wot it used-er to be

        ^

        Failure to chooch, and not skookum.

    2. silks

      Re: Dyson ain't quite wot it used-er to be

      Wife loves her Dyson hairdryer. Blokes don't have to understand, just agree...

      1. Teiwaz

        Re: Dyson ain't quite wot it used-er to be

        Wife loves her Dyson hairdryer. Blokes don't have to understand, just agree...

        Hopefully not 'in the biblical sense', the mind squeaks more than the plastic at the thought.

        Unless the hairdryers have a 'secret' second feature.....

        1. FlossyThePig

          Re: Dyson ain't quite wot it used-er to be

          @ Teiwaz

          Unless the hairdryers have a 'secret' second feature...

          It's the Braun electric toothbrush that offers that.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Dyson ain't quite wot it used-er to be

      Used to have a DC01. That was a great machine.

      Recently used a DC25. It was not.

      I guess they are coasting on the name now.

      I also guess that Dyson himself has a lot of money stashed in tax havens, judging by his enthusiastic support of Brexit.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Dyson ain't quite wot it used-er to be

        "I guess they are coasting on the name now."

        Possiblyu, but I've read that in the early days they "coasted" on the positive word of mouth publicity they goit from the way they sent someone with a free replacement if your vacuum broke down .... a policy they only started because the reliability was so atrocious and paradoxically this meant there were huge numbers of people praising the company for their excellent customer service

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Dyson ain't quite wot it used-er to be

        Oh, yeah. That nice Mr Dyson. Mr "Self-promoting manufacturer of plastic gimmickry"- sorry, Mr "British Industry"- who shut down his plant in England and moved it to Malaysia because it was cheaper. (#)

        Dyson- on top of his support for Brexit- sees the future for the United Kingdom as that of a low-tax, race-to-the-bottom, bargain basement tax haven.

        No doubt I'm sure he'd argue he'll move the factory back to Wiltshire once he can pay them a comparable rate of pay to that of Malaysia too. (And I'm sure housing costs et al in f****** Wiltshire will fall to similar levels). Because "let's become less like a Western European country and more like Malaysia" is everyone's vision of the post-Brexit future, isn't it?

        Well, it would sure as **** suit those at the top like him. Odious, hypocritical self-serving vermin.

        This is the free market, hard right Tory vision of Brexit that anyone remotely paying attention could see a "Leave" vote was endorsing.

        Don't get me wrong- the blinkered Little Englanders who voted "Leave" as a "F*** you" to Westminster- so blinkered and moronic they didn't realise they were enabling the very worst of those same tossers with their protest vote- deserve to be (metaphorically) hit with the results of their stupidity like Joe Pesci was at the end of Casino.

        Unfortunately, we're all going to suffer because of them.

        Still, at least Scotland paid attention in 2014 when the Unionist apologists "warned" us that our place within the EU would be at risk if we voted for independence. I'm glad we trusted them and our membership is safe and isn't being taken away from us against our will anyway. Oh, wait...

        (#) I like how there's a Telegraph article from 2005 in the search I linked above saying "Dyson is making pots of money for Britain by going to Malaysia". Significantly less so after moving it offshore in 2009, I'll bet, and certainly not if he succeeds in his "no corporation tax et al" vision of low-rent Britain.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Dyson ain't quite wot it used-er to be

          Oh, and one thing I didn't get in before the 10 minute edit cutoff.

          Watch out for those same hard-right Leave champions looking for scapegoats once the shit hits the fan and the aforementioned protest voters in the English "regions" and Wales get disillusioned and angry. Guaranteed they will be seeking to blame anyone who didn't/doesn't go along 100% with their "Hard Brexit" plans (#) and paints their attempts to mitigate the worst excesses of the Tory hard-right (and ex-UKIP) vision of Brexit as "sabotage" or similar.

          (#) Which was never voted for- all we can say was that people voted for "Leave", whatever that was supposed to mean (##), not the Tory right's favoured vision. But then, given they were the ones who drove the whole thing, and would most likely be in power if "Leave" won, it was bleeding obvious what direction it would take and what anyone voting "Leave" would be getting, whether or not they endorsed it.

          (##) Spoiler; it wasn't supposed to mean anything. It was Cameron's woefully misjudged attempt to placate his own party's internal political dissent by throwing them a bone that was meant to go nowhere. Yep, the future of the UK was- and is- treated as a political football purely for the purposes of the Tory party.

          1. pxd

            Re: Dyson ain't quite wot it used-er to be

            (##) Spoiler; it wasn't supposed to mean anything. It was Cameron's woefully misjudged attempt to placate his own party's internal political dissent by throwing them a bone that was meant to go nowhere. *****Yep, the future of the UK was- and is- treated as a political football purely for the purposes of the Tory party.****

            ***** This ^^^ times 10^06. pxd

            1. TRT Silver badge

              Re: Dyson hair dryer...

              I agree. It really doesn't suck.

              1. Tim99 Silver badge
                Coat

                Re: Dyson hair dryer...

                "I agree. It really doesn't suck." It blows?

            2. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Dyson ain't quite wot it used-er to be

              And yet Leave not only got more votes than Remain, but they got more votes than the Conservatives got in the previous election (the one where the manifesto promised a referendum). Was it misjudged by Cameron? Certainly. Maybe he assumed that the Labour Party would help the country and come out clearly for a Remain vote. But oh no, Labour did what they always do, prevaricated and screwed the country for their own political gains rather than behave in the best interests of the country.

              It's clear Corbyn doesn't have a clue either. He disagrees with his own party's policy on Europe. At least Cameron had the honour to quit when he realised he was on the wrong side of the vote/party/country.

          2. Dave 15

            Re: Dyson ain't quite wot it used-er to be

            Wrong thread.But to answer you Leave is perfectly simple and easy to understand even for a remainer. It means to leave the EU. The EU consists of a load of rules and regulation to create a single customs and free trade area. So leaving means leaving that (and the proposed united states of europe, european army, european foreign policy et al)

            There is no such thing as a 'soft' Brexit because leaving does NOT mean staying in all the institutions of the EU.

            Even a remainer should be able to understand that but they want to remain so continue to fight and muddy the waters in an attempt to remain.

            1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

              Re: Dyson ain't quite wot it used-er to be

              "Even a remainer should be able to understand that"

              Oh, we understand all that. We just don't believe that the pixies will be along immediately afterwards to scatter the magic dust to ensure that lots of people don't lose their jobs. It might even work out after a decade or so but by then we'll be a decade or so behind all the other economies.

              Alternatively we'll have been let back in on condition we give up the £ and a few other concessions which will be seen as worthwhile. There'll be no Leave opposition to that as nobody but nobody will ever admit to have voted leave and the outcome of the referendum will be seen as a huge statistical puzzle. BoJo and the like will be insisting that this was their essential idea all along.

              A third alternative is that it won't happen as either it will mean the collapse of the Good Friday agreement with a hard border in Ireland or a collapse of May's agreement with the DUP as the alternative is a hard border down the Irish Sea.

            2. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Dyson ain't quite wot it used-er to be

              @ Dave 15; "But to answer you Leave is perfectly simple and easy to understand even for a remainer. (#) It means to leave the EU."

              Precisely. That was the wording on the ballot paper, nothing more. (##)

              So if (assuming I understand you correctly), your case rests on the assertion that leaving the EU must inherently imply a Hard Brexit... how *exactly* does that correlate with (e.g.) Norway? It isn't an EU member- period- yet remains within the single market for most purposes and isn't remotely close to the Hard Brexit scenario by any reasonable measure.

              Oh, and please don't try "oh, well, that's not what people thought they were voting for / were actually voting for" or a 'No True Scotsman' fudge along the lines of "well, Norway isn't *really* outside the EU except on a technicality". You were trying to legitimise your favoured outcome based solely on what was actually voted for- you wanted to live by that sword, you can die by it as well.

              Or you can admit that the vote said *nothing* about a Hard Brexit, and any attempts to do so are guesswork and self-serving assertion about what people wanted without any clear-cut evidence.

              The blunt truth is that there are numerous possible scenarios, regardless of what the Hard Brexit camp would like us to believe. Unfortunately, they happen to be the ones with the power to pull the strings of a Prime Minister incompetent enough to call an unnecessary general election, fuck it up and- through no-one else's fault but her own- leave herself at their mercy to stay in power.

              (#) Oh, I get it... Hurr, hurr, remainers are stupid!!! Sick burn, dude- you got us there!

              (##) The question on the ballot was "Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?"

            3. strum

              Re: Dyson ain't quite wot it used-er to be

              > It means to leave the EU.

              It doesn't mean leaving EEA, or EFTA or any sensible arrangement of like-minded peoples.

              It certainly doesn't mean drifting off into the Atlantic, next to Rockall.

              Those who pretend that 'leaving the EU' is a simple concept, are themselves beyond simple.

              1. Anonymous Coward
                Anonymous Coward

                Re: Dyson ain't quite wot it used-er to be

                "Those who pretend that 'leaving the EU' is a simple concept, are themselves beyond simple."

                Or disingenuous.

          3. Dave 15

            Re: Dyson ain't quite wot it used-er to be

            It was the one and only thing Cameron did that he should be proud of. For 40 years after Heath lied to the public politicians have been denying the public a say in the most important decisions on this country - the giving away of our control over our own destiny to other foreign powers, whether you claim that we are 'sharing' or whether you acknowledge that we have 10% of the votes in a block who fundamentally disagree with us and most of whom have a dislike and distrust of us, many of whom actively ignore or break the rules they create in the forum so they can benefit mostly at our expense (see the balance of payments, unemployment and debt compared to 1970)

            Cameron needed to have the referendum because UKIP were gaining in strength (3rd largest by vote and getting very very close to the two leading parties) and were on a trajectory to make those dramatic breakthroughs in the first past the post that would have seen them actually able to form government

            The French are ignoring the voices of their people and denying them a say, the Danes and Swiss have worked around results of referenda to blatantly disregard their people wishes on joining euro (Danish) and freedom of movement (Swiss). The Irish and others have been asked again when rejecting treaties after meaningless sound bite promises that were subsequently not delivered.

            The only politician in europe in the last 40 years to actually listen to the people and take the action needed was Cameron It pains me that it had to be a Conservative on the ropes to be the only one brave enough but it was.

        2. Stuart21551

          Re: Dyson ain't quite wot it used-er to be

          "Don't get me wrong- the blinkered Little Englanders who voted "Leave" as a "F*** you" to Westminster- so blinkered and moronic they didn't realise they were enabling the very worst of those same tossers with their protest vote- deserve to be (metaphorically) hit with the results of their stupidity like Joe Pesci was at the end of Casino."

          Interesting parallel 'cross the pond -

      3. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

        Re: Dyson ain't quite wot it used-er to be

        "I also guess that Dyson himself has a lot of money stashed in tax havens, judging by his enthusiastic support of Brexit."

        Dunno about his stash but his manufacturing is done overseas. Why should he worry about any problems Brexit causes British manufacturers? SEP.

    4. Trigonoceps occipitalis

      Re: Dyson ain't quite wot it used-er to be

      "does anyone pay that for hot air?"

      MPs - £76,011 + millions in pension rights.

      1. jelabarre59

        Re: Dyson ain't quite wot it used-er to be

        "does anyone pay that for hot air?"

        MPs - £76,011 + millions in pension rights.

        I was going to say the same sort of thing, except about US Congresscritters

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    If he does it I reckon they'll clean up otherwise they are just blowing hot air. My puns suck.

  5. John H Woods Silver badge

    At last ...

    ... an electric car you can hear coming. From a mile away.

    1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
      Coat

      Re: At last ...

      That's because it can't decided if it wants to 'suck' or 'blow' (not saying of what though...)

      Coat with a thermal hand warmer in the pockets.

  6. x 7

    go to any municipal tip and the recycling is full of Dyson vacuums which have been dumped because the owners can't work out how to empty the cyclone filters.

    I predict Dysan cars will get scrapped for similar trivial reasons, like maybe not understanding how to recharge them

  7. Sureo

    Maybe they've figured out a way to use those bladeless fans for propulsion.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The clear plastic DC03...

    Can't remember how many wands (handles) our DC03 went through, but it would always fall back on the handle and break the clear brittle plastic. (The grey/yellow solid colour ones were stronger) . Spares were cheap though, once out of warranty.

    To say they have design flaws is an understatement, over-rated.

  9. PiltdownMan

    Still using my DC01

    But hell, I could never afford £500,000 for a Dyson "D5" electric car.

  10. M7S
    Coat

    Noting that Dyson also briefly did washing machines

    and also referencing the tech used in their main product lines, I'd trial the DysonMobile by taking it for a spin.

    1. PiltdownMan

      Re: Noting that Dyson also briefly did washing machines

      Yeah, me and Mrs PiltownMan had one of those. It was great until the gearbox went. No parts available by that time. A VERY expensive paper weight!

      1. TRT Silver badge

        Re: Noting that Dyson also briefly did washing machines

        Yep. Spares for that... you got rinsed.

    2. TRT Silver badge

      Re: ... taking it for a spin

      1400 rpm.

  11. dinsdale54

    Dyson have been doing a lot of work on electric motors for the last few years, particularly permanent magnet motors. A lot of this should be directly applicable to EVs - witness Tesla's recent move to permanent magnet motors for the model 3. If you have already solved many of the difficult problems - control, efficiency - starting the motor in the right direction etc. then scale the torque up and revs down and you have a very efficient EV motor.

    1. Nifty Silver badge

      True, and Dyson had better anticipate patent trolling from big German electrical concerns

  12. Milton

    Innovation = Brightly coloured plastic

    And I'll probably be the 10,000th person to avow lukewarm interest in electric cars that are launched with vast marketing hype for their amazingly new, innovative, radical, smashingly imaginative and incredibly clever new idea ... that had only been around for 30 years before Dyson re-invented it in lumpen, garish primary coloured chunks of plastic, thereby providing something objectively no better than its rivals but costing three times as much. Talk about an Idiot Tax.

    Then again, perhaps that analogy is more apt than I thought. Maybe people buy Dysons for the same reason they buy Apple stuff: so they can make sure people know they have one.

    ...

    I'm begininng to think I'll make my first billion manufacturing and selling SAMEs¹. Marketing will emphasise only one feature: a SAME is really expensive. When you hand over £1000 you can be sure you'll get something that cost us much, much less to make.

    ¹ Shiny And Most Expensive. It's a piece of beautifully curved, shiny—veeery shiny—material with an eyewatering price engraved into its surface. It comes in white, black or pink. Designed to fit comfortingly into the hand or be left ostentatiously (price side up) on the desk.

    (For an extra, huge fee you can have your name engraved below the price. And be sure to upgrade every Autumn, because the radiusing of the corners will change, and you don't want to be ostracised because you're using last year's SAME.)

    1. jelabarre59

      Re: Innovation = Brightly coloured plastic

      I'm begininng to think I'll make my first billion manufacturing and selling SAMEs¹. Marketing will emphasise only one feature: a SAME is really expensive. When you hand over £1000 you can be sure you'll get something that cost us much, much less to make.

      Sorry, the NoPhone already undersold you.

    2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: Innovation = Brightly coloured plastic

      "It comes in white, black or pink."

      No, no, no!!! A real SAME only ever comes in the colour the manufacturer chooses. If the give the customer a choice then you are devaluing it. Choice waters down the brand.

  13. Dave 15

    Electric... yet another failure then

    Even the Tesla has an unacceptable charge time. 20 mins for half a charge if you can find the right type of charge point. Thats 150 miles in fairly ideal conditions (not cold, not dark, not snowing/raining etc)

    I regularly have to drive longer distances and stopping for that long is not going to work. Then look at a motorway service station - 20 pumps, all dispensing 300 or so miles worth of fuel in around 5 minutes, this means you are going to need 4 times as many for the time and then twice that for the range - so some 160 of these high power chargers at every motorway service... wow, some infrastructure cost.

    Fireless steam is THE way to go

    1. Alan Brown Silver badge

      Re: Electric... yet another failure then

      "so some 160 of these high power chargers at every motorway service.."

      How many car parks are there at the services?

      The only reason you have a filling station is because the stuff you're filling the car with has a nasty tendency to catch fire if you look sideways at it, so it needs special handling procedures.

      Vs drive into the services car park, plug in and go grab lunch.

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        Re: Electric... yet another failure then

        "Vs drive into the services car park, plug in and go grab lunch."

        You can only have so many lunches in one day.

  14. adam payne

    Dyson electric car - very loud, very expensive and made of cheap plastic.

  15. Why Not?

    Dyson sales were 3.5 times that of Hoover so expect 3.5 times as many at the tip.

    Dyson UK vacuum sales in 2016 were 14 Million compared to 4 million from Hoover. So yes its likely you will see more at the council tip.

    I have a DC01 that I use in the workshop and it handles anything, you do need to change the filters every 5 years at least which costs £3 from eBay. My wife's Miele clogs regularly.

    Remember post Brexit we need to compete on the world stage and it looks like our exes are going to be petulant and try to make trade difficult to punish us.

    Electric vehicles are the future and this is a great opportunity to make the UK a world leading original manufacturer. Who else could achieve this for us? Sir Clive has retired and everyone else has been sold off.

    A UK based Dyson vehicle will help fill the void if we can't buy German vehicles, at least the emissions figures won't be fraudulent.

    Lets see the Government start to build new industries now as a response to difficult negotiations rather than undercut them with EU ones.

  16. M7S

    I'm all for the idea of electric vehicles but

    many drivers of ICE powered vehicles are currently stranded in places like the M80 and according to the news, have been there in excess of eighteen hours (at the time of typing) running engines periodically to keep warm.

    Given that batteries don't really like the cold anyway, how would electric vehicles fare in such climes? This may be of particular interest/relevance to Scandinavian or North American readers where such conditions are regular and prolonged and replies from any with experience of electric vehicle in their rural areas would be especially welcome. Such a winter might not happen here more than a couple of times a decade but it would be unwelcome to see our future transport infrastructure deal very badly with it when it does come about if we've not considered such points. Not that we're doing particularly well at the moment....

    1. Mark 85

      Re: I'm all for the idea of electric vehicles but

      Here in the States, we've had weather like that and cars/trucks stuck on the interstates for days or longer depending on the blizzard. I've passed through a few blizzards before they got bad and at least with a gas/diesel powered machine you might be able to keep warm for a few days with careful use of the available fuel. An electric? I don't think so.

    2. Alan Brown Silver badge

      Re: I'm all for the idea of electric vehicles but

      "many drivers of ICE powered vehicles are currently stranded in places like the M80 and according to the news, have been there in excess of eighteen hours (at the time of typing) running engines periodically to keep warm."

      Many drivers of ICE vehicles are stupid enough to set off in bad weather without making any preparations for unexpected stops or possibly tossing a set of snow chains in the boot.

      4WD is not a magic "get you out of trouble" wand, it's more usually something that gets you more stuck further from help than previously possible (and it certainly does nothing for improving braking performance or roadholding on bends in icy conditions.)

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        Re: I'm all for the idea of electric vehicles but

        "Many drivers of ICE vehicles are stupid enough to set off in bad weather without making any preparations for unexpected stops or possibly tossing a set of snow chains in the boot."

        True, but in the case in question, many of those drivers had left work hours early to try to get home and beat the weather closing in. It's also pretty unusual, even in the Scottish central belt to get weather quite so bad. People are not generally prepared for that level intensity because it's rare. So rare that many younger drives have never seen that sort of weather at home or on their commute. Further north in the Highlands, people are generally more prepared because they see it most years. Few people from the central belt and on south even know there is such a thing as winter tyres, let alone can source any locally. They may have heard of snow chains or snow sock, but again, have probably never needed them or seen them on sale anywhere locally.

        Owning an electric car won't make those people any more aware unless they are in self-driving cars which may simply refuse to start the journey if it can't find a safe route based on traffic conditions and weather forecast.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hell no.

    Dyson have an issue at the moment - they're an old school manufacturing outfit (not normally a bad thing) who are trying to do IT.

    Long story - they spent a long time trying to get me interviewing for a job doing their cloud stuff. At the time (a year or so ago) it was all .net on windows servers - you've got to be mental if you think that's good value. I'm a Linux guy and they tried to get me in on it.I was contracting down the road at the time when they contacted me.

    So I talked to them a bit - they were doing a PoC on Linux (good), wanted me onboard -even better. Couple of problems.

    1. I literally worked 5 miles down the road, and could have interviewed at any time after 4.15pm. Not good enough, they needed me there at 2pm or whatever.No offers of swerving into their campus after work were any good - you needed to be there at <x>. Bear in mind they pursued me.

    2. It was a perm role and a PoC. I asked what would happen if the PoC didn't work and me, a Linux guy, was still there when they decided to stick with Windows? "Oh, yeah...". Nah. That's a contract, not a perm job, if I don't have anything to do after 6 months.

    3. I had one of their recruitment people (who changed every 2 weeks it seems) asking me to organise a meeting at my then current gig with myself in a meeting room so I could interview with them remotely. So, no. I would never take the mick out of my current employer by abusing their meeting rooms and interviewing for the next gig from it.

    4. They don't do remote working. They don't even like interviewing in the campus - I know people who've been interviewed in a portakabin outside because of this. There's no decent public transport to Malmesbury too.

    5. A month later I had an offer from another place where i'm still at for a contract role. Literally the day before some guy from Dyson rang me - are you still available? Er... no. But he still wanted me, despite no feedback for a month, at which point I said I would love it, but he'd need to interview me that day before I sign the new contract. Heard nothing for 2 hours, until I got told by the agency they had a interview for me... in 2 weeks time.

    Dyson need to sort their s*it out before they've got a hope with this stuff.

    1. Alan Brown Silver badge

      Re: Hell no.

      "Dyson have an issue at the moment - they're an old school manufacturing outfit (not normally a bad thing) who are trying to do IT."

      From the description given, they have more than a few issues and inflexibility is only one of them.

      Are you sure they aren't made up of ex-British Leyland management?

    2. Stuart21551

      Re: Hell no.

      Indeed.

      I offered to show them the simplest, best performing EV driveline for consideration for their EV - friction, cost, weight, greatly down, packaging handling and NVH greatly up - conf., VTM.

      "Thanks, but we've got our own inventions" ??????

      Hope they are under no contract with guv for their £265M handout to use the best available tech. Have considered to publish my driveline the day before he announces his car so journos can ask "Where'd ya get such a 19thC driveline from, James?"

      oops. NVH greatly down, too.

      1. Stuart21551

        Re: Hell no.

        P.S. I know that of which I invent.

        tinyurl.com/ssinventor

        Bronze for transport planning, SiIver for Health, Gold for environment.

  18. Alan Brown Silver badge

    Likely about as sucessful

    As a Dyson washing machine.

    And as reliable. Quality British Engineering.

    WRT pollution reductions:

    1: Fuel to wheel efficiency for electric vehicles powered by coal is about 30%, for petrol/diesel cars it's as low as 1% and seldom exceeds 5% (~30% is the maximum _possible_ efficiency of an internal combustion engine under full load/wide open throttle and cars don't spend much time in those conditions)

    2: You can improve filtering of the power station exhaust (or efficiency of the generation) and gain over the entire fleet instantly. With ICE vehicles you have to wait for individual improvements.

    That said, safety critical devices with high kinetic energy values are not the same as brightly coloured overpriced consumer electronic tat. I can't see this going very well.

  19. Elmer Phud

    Dyson again?

    Is the 'Saviour of British Industry going to do the usual?

    rinse the public purse again then manufacture in China and pick up another 'british trade' award?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Dyson again?

      That's an entirely unfair slur on Dyson- contrary to what some people will tell you, he *didn't* shut his UK-based factory and move it to China.

      He moved it to Malaysia.

  20. Hairy Spod
    FAIL

    a great deal of electricity is generated in coal-fired plants that also emit pollution.

    erm if by a great deal you mean 7% which is probably going to reduce to 0% by 2025

    Also an EV on coal power alone will still be responsible for generating between a 1/3 and 1/4 of the emmisions from a petrol let alone diesel car.

    Haters gonna hate but most of you lot are going to sound even more stupid than the pricks who used to tell me at weddings not so long ago that their film cameras would always outperform a digital one and who would then turn up at the christening with a digital camera.

    Or the people who said they would never switch to a smart phone until they could last a full week on a single charge.

  21. jelabarre59

    Oil

    Now how can you make a proper British electric vehicle; it won't drip oil...

    Although being an electric car, could always have Lucas make the electrics.

    1. Stuart21551

      Re: Oil

      Leeking Lectrons is Lousier!

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Upstream emmissions

    Soooo bored by this elecy cars use electricity from coal argument. I pay £50 quid more per year to get 100% green elecy. Please dress arch the question of how much electricity goes into refining each litre of fuel that a fossil car uses...that will give you an interesting insight.

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