Dyson kills electric car project as not 'commercially viable'

Dyson, the company known for its high-end vacuums and other luxury appliances, is canceling a $3.1 billion electric car project because it can't figure out how to make money from it.

Founder James Dyson announced the news to employees on Thursday saying he "simply can no longer see a way to make it commercially viable."

Dyson has vast expertise with electric motors and batteries, but apparently couldn't turn that into a workable business model for a Range Rover-size utility vehicle it had been planning to produce in Singapore and sell throughout Asia (and then beyond).

Diagrams of the vehicle were revealed in May, two years after the project was formally announced. Dyson was developing the car in secret at a former airfield in England.

Many electric automakers, including Tesla, have struggled to turn their vehicles into profitable endeavors due, in large part, to the high cost of the underlying tech.

All is not lost, however. According to Autocar, Dyson plans to see the investment through and continue to develop some of the technology, with an eye toward either incorporating it into other product lines or licensing it out.