CEOs of the big car manufacturers probably have nightmares about waking up to find Google GOOGL -0.39%, Apple AAPL -0.45%, Tesla, or maybe even the Chinese have come up with the electric car for the masses which will spell doom for their business.
Even in their most vulnerable moments though they probably didn’t think this blind-siding torpedo would come from a vacuum cleaner maker.
Dyson the maker of high-priced and high tech domestic appliances and public space hand-dryers, is being funded by the British government to develop an electric car, the Guardian reports, based on what the newspaper believes to be an accidental disclosure by the government.
Morgan Stanley MS -0.56% analyst Adam Jonas said in a report this is a credible possibility because Dyson uses the types of motors found in electric cars. Not only that, Dyson recently spent $90 million to buy University of Michigan spinoff Sakti3.
“At the time, founder Sir James Dyson suggested the technology would be used for home appliances and not vehicle applications. However, since that acquisition, the company has announced plans to invest one billion pounds ($1.4 billion) in battery technology over the next five years,” Jonas said.
“Dyson claims that Sakti3’s solid state technology is potentially smaller, safer, more reliable and longer-lasting than the most advanced lithium-ion batteries on the market today,” Jonas said.
