Dyson: a British inventor in Asia

James Dyson released 5,126 prototypes before perfecting the final version of the machine that would make his name and his fortune. A quarter of a century after the sale of this bagless vacuum cleaner, the attempt of its namesake company to enter the automotive field with a series of electric cars from 2021 will allow much less testing.

The private British engineering group has bet its future on one of the most competitive markets in the world, pitting the entrepreneur to companies such as Volkswagen, Toyota and General Motors.

Its 2 billion pound bet went into high gear this week with the announcement of the first car manufacturing plant in Singapore, the city-state that has not manufactured cars since the closure of A factory by Ford in 1980.

Singapore's commercial ties with China, the world's largest market for electric cars, and its many engineering graduates, have allowed Singapore to surpass other short-listed candidates, including Britain, where Dyson is headquartered. .

Although truly envisioned, the UK has always been considered a long shot and this decision has inevitably raised questions about the country's ability to protect its auto industry as Britain prepares to leave the country. 39; EU.

This is the ambition of Sir James, probably the most famous inventor in Britain and a fervent supporter of Brexit, that he thinks that Dyson cars will eventually exceed the range of hair dryers, vacuum cleaners and of the company's air filters and will define the brand.

"If they decide that they're going to develop a product in a certain category, they're going ahead," says a former Dyson research engineer.

But the magnitude of the challenge is huge. Established players still struggle to make cars with a devilish profit. The most important newcomer in the field, Tesla's Elon Musk, has spent billions of dollars in cash, with only a handful of positive quarterly profits to be shown.

A commercial failure, large cost overruns or even unexpected failures on the production lines could threaten the company that Sir James built in an empire with £ 3.5 billion in revenue.

"I think Dyson underestimates the scale of the challenge, both to develop a new car and to build it successfully," said David Bailey, professor of economics and industrial policy at the University of Ottawa. 39, Aston University.

"It's going to cost a lot more than expected. It's going to consume a lot of resources, "he adds.

Dyson's interest in Cars find the principle of the cyclone used in its vacuums to suck the dust. In the 1990s, Sir James suggested that this could be used to extract fumes from diesel exhaust gases, but his dealings with car manufacturers were rejected.

Today, the company can boast of success in almost every category of products it has entered, with the notable exception of its washing machines, which sold at a loss and were abandoned.

Skeptics say that there is a huge difference between high-end home appliances and a rapidly changing automotive industry facing the rise of electric propulsion technology, artificial intelligence and new Property models. Yet with far fewer moving parts than traditional internal combustion engine cars, battery powered vehicles are easier to design and produce, opening the door for new competitors, from Tesla (California) to Rimac ( Croatia).

In China alone, which Dyson sees as its main target market, there are more than 300 registered electric car start-ups, most with rich backers and ambitious founders. They include names such as Lucid, Byton and Nio, backed by the Tencent Internet group and recently listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

"We know the market is saturated," Sir James said last year. "But if you make a product with a really better technology, as well as performance and a product that people are looking for, you can make money."

Tesla has sought to strengthen its position by tackling the efficiency problems experienced by established manufacturers, ranging from over-reliance on suppliers to the traditional franchise model. Dyson applies a similar disruptive mindset.

"Dyson thinks, like Musk, that the historical industry does not know what it's doing," says one person who worked on the project. "It's quite a risk."

The notorious secret of society – it took more than a year to enter into a confidentiality agreement with a supplier on the project – this means that few details were revealed about his first four-wheeled vehicle that will leave the production line in just three years. Scheduled to be the first in a planned series of three models, it will be launched to the top of the market and produced in a small batch of several thousand, according to people familiar with the plans.

Unlike Tesla, which has experienced manufacturing problems, the British group already manufactures millions of products a year and buys about 4 billion pieces a year worldwide.

"It's not a Silicon Valley start-up, it includes manufacturing," says a supplier.

Dyson believes that its specialties in the fields of electric motors, batteries and aerodynamics will give it a competitive advantage over companies with more than a century of experience in the automotive industry. But to succeed, he will have to overcome some of his reluctance to collaborate with component suppliers.

Its fans and air purifiers gave Dyson expertise in the field of airflow physics, an important area for electric vehicles because drag is a determining factor in battery life: the distance to which an electric vehicle can leave its "tank" before needing to recharge.

For example, a Tesla Model S can travel 300 miles with a charged battery, partly because of its sleek design. But when you carry bikes, the distance drops considerably.

Most established car brands have distinctive grilles that allow cooling air to enter hot engines. Keeping the same design for their electric cars allows drivers to recognize the models – an Audi electric car will always look like an Audi – but it will compromise aerodynamics that will hinder the range of cars.

This should give those starting from scratch an automatic advance length.

The other strong point of Dyson is the batteries. It already makes 7% of the world's lithium-ion cells to power devices such as its wireless floor cleaners.

However, it could be forced to reduce the scope of its technological ambitions, at least for the moment. The company initially aimed for its cars to be powered by internally developed cells as part of a £ 1 billion investment, but now it has admitted that it could buy them from customers. an external supplier.

Many automakers are already buying their batteries to avoid being locked into a single battery type and against the huge expenses associated with building a cell production site, says Chris Robinson, Senior Analyst at Lux. Research.

"An alternative [for Dyson] could be a license of his [battery] equipment for someone else to do for them – contract manufacturing, "he adds. "There are a lot of battery factories in China and elsewhere in Asia."

Dyson's reluctance to Collaborating with other companies – after years of defending their intellectual property – makes this approach unlikely.

This mentality played a crucial role in its decision not to build in Britain, as many of the UK government's funding channels require collaboration with smaller partners, an approach designed to foster a national supply chain. . Great Britain may need to change this approach to gain future work.

"We are breaking down, we have no money to invest in these projects," says a government figure. "Other countries cheat the system and find solutions, but we do not do it."

Singapore's incentives include five-year tax breaks, which can be extended, and research and development grants that can cover up to 30% of the cost of projects involving the development of products, applications or materials. processes, according to the Singapore Economic Development Council. They also offer expensive land at discounted rates, says a person with economic planning experience in Singapore. "They would have certainly given [Dyson] a favorable tax break, "they add.

Dyson refuses to reveal the extent of its investment, although EDB's Kiren Kumar says the company would double its 1,000 employees in the country with the investment.

Advanced manufacturing is a priority for Singapore, which sees this as a way to increase productivity at a time when the city-state is striving to maintain high levels of efficiency.

For Dyson, who said his investment in Singapore was based on market access rather than incentives, no amount of public aid can eliminate the need to devote his own resources to the business.

Sir James has ruled out an initial public offer of financing for the project. Pre-tax profit of Weybourne Group, Dyson's commercial interest holding company, increased by 27 percent to £ 801 million last year, while revenue jumped two-fifths to $ 3.5 billion from £.

The level of its debt is low compared to the standards of industrial companies, which allows it to borrow significantly, while its main activity generates liquidity.

Nevertheless, Sir James is well aware of the challenge he has met. "Investing in new technologies requires a lot of self-confidence and considerable financial commitment over long periods of time," he said at a Financial Times dinner this year. "Along the way, there can be many sleepless nights and a lot of frustration," he said before adding that, in the background, "Dyson has never been a company of any kind. # 39; vacuum ".