Dyson to Make Electric Cars from 2020 - But Can It Succeed?

A new entrant into the increasingly congested battleground for electric vehicles! Could you be driving a Dyson in 3-4 years time?

Dyson has used innovation to take the vacuum cleaner and hand-dryer market by storm, but I wonder whether that innovative reputation will be enough of a competitive advantage to succeed in the automotive industry where economies of scale have traditionally been so important?

Dyson is committing £2 billion to develop their own electric cars. Much of the money will help fund an aggressive recruitment campaign for extra engineers and designers who can develop prototypes and accelerate the testing process.

Will that be enough? Tesla - another business with designs on leadership of electric vehicles is spending about the same on capital expenditure in the next year!

James Dyson made the announcement in a tweet to his employees

The British inventor promises that his car will be radically different

2017 seems to be a year when renewables and electric vehicles are moving forward more quickly than we had anticipated. Both of them will be among the hot topics for business and economics students and teachers in the months and years ahead.

This video from the excellent Lex team at the FT explores Dyson's move further.