Dyson EV patent drawings emerge

Patent filings have revealed the basic design and layout of the heavily publicised Dyson electric car slated for a reveal in 2021.

The patent drawings of the EV reveal a car with a very long wheelbase, short overhangs, a long, sloping windscreen and an overall stance much like range of modern crossover wagons.

Made public yesterday, despite being filed 18 months ago, the drawings show the vacuum-cleaner company has learnt lessons from the car industry, copying the BMW i3’s oversized-wheel strategy for greater efficiency.

The five-door, low-rise wagon is about the size of a Range Rover and is said to include reclining seats in the rear and the possibility of a third row of seating.

The Dyson EV has been delayed, with founder James Dyson moving the company headquarters to Singapore and insisting on waiting for solid-state battery technology to mature into a production reality.

The engineering team continues to be lead by Dyson’s vice-president of automotive, Ian Minards, who was poached from his role as Aston Martin’s chief engineer in 2016.

Dyson yesterday insisted to his 500 automotive staff that the drawings “certainly don’t reveal what our vehicle will really look like or give any specifics around what it will do.”

Instead, he said the patent filings "show an androgynous vehicle and provide a glimpse of some of the inventive steps that we are considering”.

The email suggests it would have a low centre-of-gravity to improve handling (despite it being physically impossible to “improve” the handling of something that doesn’t exist).

The all-aluminium Dyson EV will be around five metres long – a barrier beyond which Europeans lose interest quickly, with a 3.3-metre wheelbase.

It will have about five centimetres more standard ground clearance than the current Range Rover (which it clearly targets, although it will be conceptually closer to the Tesla Model X), despite being a quarter of a metre lower overall.

The bimotor EV will use three rows of stadium seating inside, with front and rear suspension subframes bolting on to a central “skateboard” battery/chassis unit.

The Dyson EV plans coalesced in 2017, when the company’s founder said he would invest £2 billion to develop its first car and battery technology.

While it is being developed in the Brexit-mired UK, Dyson controversially moved the company headquarters to the tax haven of Singapore last year.

The current British facility covers six redeveloped World War II hangers at a former Royal Air Force base near Wiltshire. While a prototype manufacturing facility is also being built there, full production will be at a new plant planned for Singapore.