Dyson finally unveils plans for e-SUV that might have been
TORONTO — James Dyson, inventor of some of the fanciest vacuum cleaners in the world, has finally revealed his electric car project in full. Too bad it will never be built.
Dyson made headlines when the company announced it would build an electric car to rival Tesla, but the project was cancelled in October 2019. Now, Dyson is providing a first look at the potentially game-changing EV that could have been.
Code-named N526, the seven-seat SUV has a claimed 600-mile (965-kilometre) range, achievable thanks to proprietary solid-state batteries. That figure is almost double that of Tesla’s seven-seat Model X, at 314 miles (505 km).
The vehicle weighs 2.6 tonnes despite being made of aluminum, and can make the sprint to 100 km/h in just 4.8 seconds. Two 200-kW electric motors produce 536 horsepower and 480 pound-feet of torque.
The exterior resembles a high-end Range Rover, with a windshield that “rakes back more steeply than on a Ferrari”; wheels that “are bigger than on any production car on the market”; and an overall size “five metres long, two metres wide and 1.7 metres tall.”
Inside, the vehicle uses a head-up display to clean up the dashboard, all useful information “floats in front of your face like a hologram.”
Dyson spent a considerable amount of his own cash to get the project started, an estimated $850 million. However, the vehicle needed to be profitable, and Dyson said that would have put the car’s price above $255,000.