Dyson plans to make cars ‘work properly’
WE’RE starting to hear more and more details about the forthcoming foray into the car industry from the multibillionaire inventor Sir James Dyson.
That’s right, the bloke who brought us a radical new way of vacuuming our carpets is plotting to build a car.
Of course, it’ll be electric. Of course, it’s bound to look a bit unconventional and, of course, it’ll be a financial success. Everything he touches turns to gold.
For example, the vacuum cleaners he invented were a game-changer and the industry was forced to ditch its reliance on dusty disposable bags and compete with his cyclone system. One of his earlier triumphs was a wheelbarrow with a ball instead of a wheel. Remember them? I do.
But these days you can’t go anywhere without seeing the fruits of his labours. If you
pop to the loo you might be lucky enough to find yourself drying your hands on one of his Airblade jet-drying thingies.
And my wife recently bought one of his hairdryers. She loves it so much I swear it’d be one of the first things she’d grab if the house caught fire. Forget me and the dog, as long as the Dyson Supersonic is safe. Sir James has made his name by taking a fresh look at an existing product and making it work better. “I just want things to work properly”, is his famous catchphrase.
So what can we expect from a Dyson-mobile? The fact of the matter is we don’t know yet. And we probably won’t know for another year or two. But I’m looking forward to someone taking a fresh approach to building cars. We already know that electric cars can be designed completely differently, because there’s no need to find a secure, sound-proofed and insulated space for a that massive lump of iron we call an engine. This change in design is starting to happen, but it’s taking place very slowly. And Sir James will have certainly noticed that.
I suppose we can also expect it to have some sort of revolutionary battery technology, and it’s likely it’ll have trick motors and probably some other sorts of innovations we’ve not even thought of yet. There’s just one problem I can foresee. We might have a Dyson hairdryer in our house, but we had to sell most of our furniture to buy one. And that meant we had nothing left to sell that would enable us to afford a Dyson vacuum cleaner.
What I’m saying is, Dyson products might be pretty good, but they come at a price. And electric cars will only make waves in the mainstream if they become significantly cheaper.
So good luck, Sir James, but unless the most impressive attribute of your new car is its accessible price tag, which I doubt it will be, I’m not sure they’ll be as common as your vacuums. I hope I’m wrong.
There’s just one problem... Dyson products might be pretty good but they come at a price