However, just three years later, the company said it had written off £46 million from acquiring the startup, after a sweeping review of its investment. This battery tech was clearly meant to be a key element in catapulting Dyson into becoming a serious challenger in the automotive industry. In a statement, founder James Dyson promises that “Dyson’s next-generation battery technology will drive a major revolution in the performance and sustainability of machines.” Eight years on, however, it’s still unclear what Dyson learned from its ill-fated 2015 acquisition of American startup Sakti3, a developer of solid-state lithium-ion batteries, in a deal worth a reported $90 million. The plant is part of a broader five-year £2.75 billion ($3.43 billion) investment plan from the brand, which also includes other new facilities in various countries as well as an initial recruitment of 250 robotics engineers in computer vision, machine learning, sensors, and mechatronics-then supposedly 700 more over the next five years.ĭyson says that its research teams have been working together globally on new battery tech that uses “novel materials and processes.” But what does that actually mean? Dyson won’t say. Described in the PR marketing bumf as “the most significant investment in advanced manufacturing in the firm’s history,” the new facility in Tuas-which spans the equivalent of 53 basketball courts-will supposedly be completed this year, and is expected to be fully operational by 2025. In early May, the company announced that it would be building a proprietary new technology battery plant in Singapore to manufacture these next-generation batteries. What wasn’t on display, however, was something potentially far more lucrative to the company than iterative updates to vacuums and purifiers: how Dyson was planning to manufacture what it promised will be radically new types of batteries. Various staff members demonstrated research products, including autonomous robots with grasping arms that can help pick up household objects, while dishing out miniature models of vacuum cleaners as mementos for the journalists, constructed using the prototyping lab’s bank of industrial 3D printers. Here’s the breakdown.Įager to flex its engineering muscle, Dyson’s jaunt around its Singapore sites brought journalists on a behind-the-scenes look at its St James Power Station, the Singapore Advanced Manufacturing facility (to see the makings of its digital motors), and the Singapore Technology Centre. Hot off the hot mess that was the Zone air-purifying headphones, and some excellent new hair straighteners, Dyson is unveiling its first wet vacuum, a completely redesigned robot cleaner, and an air purifier intended for large open-plan spaces (fortunately, this one you don’t have to plonk on your head). The main reason for all this is hubbub, which Dyson is modestly branding “the future of clean,” is the launch of not one, but three additions to its product lines. The company has flown dozens of journalists from all over the world to attend tours of the HQ’s various facilities. “Our engineers continue to employ technologies to reduce the cognitive burden on our owners, saving time, energy, and effort … a true set-and-forget mindset.” Perhaps this is bad time to mention that according to a recent study in Neurology, completing household chores may actually lower the risk of dementia?Ĭhurchill is holding court at Dyson’s global headquarters, St James Power Station, in Singapore, during a splashy three-day press trip in April. “Our future vision is of a home that can look after itself,” says Dyson’s chief technology officer John Churchill. Dyson is firmly of the view that we need to do less of this cleaning nonsense.
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