Dyson scraps electric car project saying it is 'not commercially viable'

[Steve Walker]

I love camping and have recently managed to convert my wife to it.

I do not love public transport that makes my daily commute take 5 to 6 times as long as driving and stops me just rushing out for the plumbing item I need urgently before the shops shut; getting soaked or hot and sweaty on a bike (especially as I suffer from urticaria and riding any distance always causes me intense and unbearable itching on my back and arms); the higher risk and the sheer hassle of getting dressed up and removing protective clothing of a motorbike; the limitations of an electric car for longer journeys and slow "refill" times.

If and when my wife is able to drive again (medical problems) or my when my sons are old enough to drive, I would consider giving my wife my car and getting an electric one for me (if it was affordable). That would allow me to use it for commuting and local shopping, etc. while she (who does very few miles) could have my car - still leaving us with a bigger car capable of those longer journeys and the occassional need to carry 6 or 7 people.

SteveW

[tabbypurr]

Wow. My longest lasting is from 1922. Still works. It has needed new rubber on the tyres though.

NT

[tabbypurr]

The sensible thing would be to require all new development areas to include paths for golf carts ad let them be used as well as the usual roads. Of course our govt isn't doing that.

The French things are called 'sans permis.' Most drivers were disqualified for drunk driving. They're horrid to drive.

NT

[S Viemeister]

We still have and use our DC01, bought over 21 years ago. I replaced the belt once (daughter has very long hair). And filters, of course. n But we tend to take good care of our appliances...

[Dave Plowman (News]

I replaced my Hoover Junior with a Panasonic upright in the early 90s. Because using the hose on the Panny - ie like a plain cylinder vacuum - was very much easier. The Hoover would have been 20 years old and still working fine - so gave it away.

The Panny still is working fine, with only the normal consumables replaced. Only complain is it's noisy.

[Dave Plowman (News]

You're very lucky your flex hasn't broken. Fixed my neighbours one where it had. And later, a new switch. But since she is part of the Dyson community she bought a new one anyway.

[T i m]

I think it was fairly common (when I was at school) for a tiny minority of the kids to play 'pranks' with the teachers vehicles, as you say especially at the end of schooldays but it wasn't something I ever felt inclined to join in with as I used to do basic servicing on some of their cars. ;-)

When doing my 'Trans-Ed' course after leaving school and going to the Technical College when I was 16, we had to give a small talk to the class on something, I chose the 4/ combustion cycle.

The teacher kept stopping me because she was very interested in the content ... 'are you saying that the stuff is burning under my bonnet ..?' ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[T i m]

<snip>

Excellent.

Who does?

No need foe either if you are fit enough and wear the right gear?

Then that's a specific / personal issued not suffered by most.

From people driving around in tanks, isolated from the outside world mainly.

Except 1) you can often get there quicker and 2) often park easier when you do. But I agree, for a journey just too far to walk and too short to get yer gear on, a car is handy (or some other covered / assisted EV)?

Then moderate your journeys with them accordingly. ;-)

My EV 'Moke' only had a range of 20 miles but I often used it most of the time in the summer as it did all I needed. eg, I could commute to work and back (inc lunchtimes) for over a week on one charge. ;-)

Ok. I think that is a fairly common compromise / step these days.

See above.

If you go to somewhere like Milton Keynes, that was built with alternate means of transportation in mind (to some degree) and so something like a C5 or it's bigger brother (like a gold cart but lighter) could be very useful, for those of us who might otherwise be walking, on a cycle or motorbike.

Cheers, T i m

[S Viemeister]

My uncle has a DC01, bought even earlier than mine. It still works just fine.

[mm0fmf]

You and him must live in filthy houses then! :-)

Dyson cleaners from experience with mine and friends do not last. They are easy to get spares for them and they are easy to repair. If my DC01 had not cost so much up front I'd have not bothered fixing it so many times with relatively cheap parts from Dyson.

The feel of the AEG (not cheap) is miles better, better hoses, plastics etc. And it's so quiet. I remember the traitor Dyson making a stink about EU testing of cleaners and the motor power limit being bad. The AEG cleans better with a lower power motor and that's without the benefit of power brush.

Just as well he isn't making a car... it would have been louder than a mid-90s F1 car and would have had a set of temperature cut outs on the motor that triggered a few minutes after you start driving it.

[ARW]

He needs to make something as good as a Henry.

[newshound]

IIRC you are also allowed to drive them if you are banned for drunk driving.

[tabbypurr]

Both are good machines, but with very different strengths & weaknesses. Henry for diy, Dyson for the lounge carpet. Used Dysons are worth it for home use, new ones are silly prices for what they are.

NT

[Steve Walker]

Correct.

SteveW

[Steve Walker]

I remember in my early teens going to a museum in York and my aunt being most put-out that they had a display of old home electrical equipment, including the same type of vacuum cleaner that she used.

I certainly remember my parents having a cylinder vac (and there are photos of me as a toddler sitting on it as my mum was vaccing and pulling it around), that was passed to me when I bought a house in my mid-20s. After a few years it started vibrating horribly and I found that one blade of the twin centrifugal fans had broken off. As each fan was essentially two metal disks, with curved blades between them and fixed by bent tabs, I just removed the remains of the broken one and the opposite one for balance and it ran for years afterwards. I only got rid of it as I wanted a vac that could also wash carpets.

SteveW

[Adrian]

In message <qnte5g$kdf$ [e-mail], Steve Walker [e-mail]> writes

I was most put out looking around the computer museum at Bletchley Park, and found that one of the exhibits was the successor model to the one that I used at home on a near daily basis. However this has little to do with Dyson cars.

Adrian

[charles]

I was more impressed with thenfact thatb they were attempting to rebuild the one for which I wrote a program in 1962 (EDSAC). "But we'll need to get the power to the buidling upgraded before we can turn it on.".

[Dave Plowman (News]

IIRC, Dyson argued for a lower limit. The idea you need one horsepower to pick up some dust does seem pretty odd.

[ZakJames]

It isnt some dust that matters, it?s the hardest stuff that matters with a vac.

[Marland]

When a few of us got together and shared a house when we first left home in the 70?s one of the lads contributions to the domestic machinery was a Goblin cylinder vacuum cleaner that was handed over by his gran and was a

1930?s model that she said was kept just for the stairs after she got an upright. It worked but with a lot of sparking from the motor so we decided to check the brushes and found a couple of wartime utility pencils had been shaped to fit instead of proper brushes.

Later enquiries of the lady got the reply that during WW2 it was proving hard to get some spare ones so her husband whittled the pencils as a substitute.

GH