Technology company Dyson has announced that it will not push through with its plan to build its own line of electric cars.
Dyson, best known for its line of vacuum cleaners, decided to scrap its project to build electric cars. The company, headed by British inventor Sir James Dyson, said that while its engineers had developed a "fantastic electric car", it would not push through with the project because it was not "commercially viable".
Sir James sent an email to all employees saying that Dyson was unable to find a buyer for the project. This division of the company currently has 500 employees.
Previously, Dyson planned to make an investment of over £2 billion in the development of a "radical and different" electric vehicle as part of a project it launched in 2017. It specified that the car to be developed would not be targeting the mass market.
Half of the funds will be placed in the construction of the car while the other half will be focused on the development of electric batteries.
The company announced in October 2018 that it will build the at a new plant in Singapore and completion of the project is expected in 2020. Roll out of the first vehicles was originally scheduled for 2021.
Tan Kong Hwee, assistant managing director of Singapore's Economic Development Board, said "As Dyson's decision not to pursue the electric vehicle business was taken at an early stage, the disruption to its operations and workforce in Singapore will be minimal."
Sir James wrote in the email: "This is not a product failure, or a failure of the team, for whom this news will be hard to hear and digest. We have tried very hard throughout the development process, we simply can no longer see a way to make it commercially viable. The Dyson automotive team has developed a fantastic car; they have been ingenious in their approach while remaining faithful to our philosophies."
