戴森宣布进军电动汽车行业

大家都喜爱的戴森 (Dyson)，宣布进军电动汽车行业了……

英国皇家工程院院士和皇家学会会士詹姆斯·戴森爵士，昨天通过邮件向公司全体员工告知了这件事。新车预计 2020 年问世。

戴森爵士利用流体力学原理发明了旋风分离式 (cyclonic seperation) 吸尘器，但没有公司愿意买他的设计（因为会影响吸尘器尘袋的销售），所以他创立了戴森公司自己生产吸尘器，从日本起步做邮政贩卖，拿了设计奖，花了十几年的时间才在英国本土以及全球畅销开来。目前，戴森利在旋风分离原理基础上生产的中高档吸尘器备受消费者的青睐。

但在那些家里可以乱、发型不能乱的年轻人心目中，戴森公司迄今为止最优秀的产品应该是2016 年的 “Supersonic”电吹风。大约从五年前开始研发，戴森利用之前的无扇叶风扇技术，设计了一款风量超大但又尺寸极小且超静音的马达，花了足足四年设计出了这款超静音电吹风，售价 3000 元人民币……

詹姆斯·戴森爵士

除了吹风机、吸尘器之外，戴森公司其他的好评产品还有无扇叶风扇/空调/加湿器。哦对了，就在今年 6 月，戴森还推出了一款号称 37 年不用换灯泡的 CSYS 台灯，售价仍然是“戴森”级的 4000 元。这款台灯所用热管技术的发明者是戴森爵士的儿子杰克·戴森 (Jake Dyson)。

戴森产品都挺贵，就连收入不错的小白领想买都得好好盘算一下，毕竟买了小半个月工资就没了……但很多人还是成为了戴森的拥趸——作为“消费升级”风潮的代表产品，成为戴森的用户能让你的生活质量提高一大截……还是值得的。

戴森还有一些其他商用产品，比如 Airblade干手器、商用照明等等。总的来说，这还是一家非常不错的消费电子企业……可它怎么就去做电动汽车了呢？

其实戴森跟汽车的故事要追溯到上世纪 80、90年代。1988 年，戴森爵士看到一篇论文，发现柴油机的尾气有严重的健康危害。戴森在 1990 年设立了一个专门的团队，用旋风分离技术做柴油机尾气颗粒捕获。

到 1993 年，这个团队已经开发出了可用的原型，他们为了推广还把这款产品送上过电视节目。遗憾的是，和那些看走眼的吸尘器厂商一样，汽车公司也对戴森的颗粒捕获技术不感兴趣。理由你肯定想不到：他们觉得捕获这些有害物质之后处理起来太麻烦太昂贵……

戴森爵士做这件事是想要促进技术进步和保护行人健康，但在当时环保并不是那么大的一个话题。考虑到戴森还有核心业务——吸尘器要做，这个柴油机尾气颗粒捕获的项目就没有做下去。

但戴森爵士是个记性很好的人，清洁汽车技术这件事，他一直放在心里。到了 2016 年，Supersonic 吹风机发布后在市场上广受好评，戴森爵士突然想起了汽车那档子事。

他发现：戴森既有强大的电动马达，电池技术能力也不差，还有非常丰富的流体力学研究经验和产品转化能力。但问题是，过去这些技术都是相对独立的，存在于不同的产品里，比如吹风机、无扇叶风扇和无绳吸尘器里——有没有一个产品，能够把戴森的所有技术和研发实力都集合到一起？

这个产品就是汽车，电动汽车。

戴森父子

去年 9 月和今年 8 月，戴森先后从阿斯顿马丁招来了两名高管，分别为产品研发总监伊恩·迈纳德 (Ian Minards) 和采购总监大卫·威尔 (David Wyer)。另据 Recode 报道，前特斯拉全球公关副总裁目前在戴森负责公关。戴森的电动汽车团队成员已经超过 400 人，并将继续高速扩张。戴森爵士还保证将投资 20 亿英镑用于电动汽车研发。

所以，“戴森”牌电动汽车长什么样，跑多快，有什么特性？这些戴森爵士都拒绝透露，原因是“汽车行业技术竞争太过于激烈”，关于汽车的细节该公司都必须尽量保密。

不会长这样吧：

开个玩笑……

不过有一点我知道，那就是：

这可能是第一款你勒紧裤腰带都买不起的戴森产品……

以下为内部信全文：

In 1988 I read a paper by the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, linking the exhaust from diesel engines to premature death in laboratory mice and rats. In March 1990 a team at Dyson began work on a cyclonic filter that could be fitted on a vehicle’s exhaust system to trap particulates.

By 1993 we had developed several working prototypes and showed an early iteration to British television programme Blue Peter. The team went on to develop a much more sophisticated technology.

To our chagrin, nobody at the time was interested in employing our diesel exhaust capture system and we stopped the project. The industry said that ‘disposing’ of the collected soot was too much of a problem! Better to breathe it in?

In the period since, governments around the world have encouraged the adoption of oxymoronically designated ‘clean diesel’ engines through subsidies and grants. Major auto manufacturers have circumvented and duped clean air regulations. As a result, developed and developing cities are full of smog-belching cars, lorries and buses. It is a problem that others are ignoring.

Throughout, it has remained my ambition to find a solution to the global problem of air pollution. Some years ago, observing that automotive firms were not changing their spots, I committed the company to develop new battery technologies. I believed that electrically powered vehicles would solve the vehicle pollution problem. Dyson carried on innovating. The latest digital motors and energy storage systems power the Dyson Supersonic hair dryer and cord-free vacuum line. We’ve relentlessly innovated in fluid dynamics and HVAC systems to build our fans, heaters and purifiers.

At this moment, we finally have the opportunity to bring all our technologies together into a single product. Rather than filtering emissions at the exhaust pipe, today we have the ability to solve it at the source. So I wanted you to hear it directly from me: Dyson has begun work on a battery electric vehicle, due to be launched by 2020.

We’ve started building an exceptional team that combines top Dyson engineers with talented individuals from the automotive industry. The team is already over 400 strong, and we are recruiting aggressively. I’m committed to investing £2bn on this endeavour.

The project will grow quickly from here but at this stage we will not release any information. Competition for new technology in the automotive industry is fierce and we must do everything we can to keep the specifics of our vehicle confidential

In London, nearly 9,500 people die early each year due to long-term exposure to air pollution according to a study carried out by researchers at King’s College London. The World Health Organisation reports “in 2012 around 7 million people died – one in eight of total global deaths – as a result of air pollution exposure”. It is our obligation to offer a solution to the world’s largest single environmental risk. I look forward to showing you all what I hope will be something quite unique and better, in due course!

James