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Dyson unveils the $1 billion electric car it axed

Sir James Dyson – founder of household electrical appliance company Dyson – has revealed the electric car his company was working on before cancelling the project late last year.


Dyson began developing the seven-seater car – codenamed ‘N526’ – in 2017 with a total planned budget of approximately AU$3.7 billion, as reported by The Times.

However, by the time work was halted due to exceeding development costs in October 2019, Mr Dyson had already invested AU$941 million of his own money into the project.

Utilising Dyson’s proprietary solid-state battery technology, the N526 electric car had a claimed driving range of approximately 965km on a single charge.

Mr Dyson claimed this unusually long driving range could be achieved “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”.

 

Drive

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

The Dyson electric car’s claimed outputs of 400kW and 650Nm also would’ve been good enough to propel the 2600kg car from 0-100km/h in 4.8 seconds onto a top speed of 201km/h, the company claimed.

Interior styling of the unfinished car was radical, with a segmented seat design and a heads up display for the driver that Dyson says “floats in front of your face like a hologram”.

The N526 project was ultimately put on the shelf due to development costs, with Dyson saying each car would’ve had to be priced at AU$282,000 to cover expenses.

While the N526 may never be released, Dyson has said he is open to the idea of other carmakers using his solid-state battery technology.

Note: images sourced from The Times

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