After scrapping electric car project, James Dyson turns to coronavirus ventilators

Now that it’s abandoned its work developing an electric vehicle, the company founded by inventor James Dyson is tackling a new and decidedly timely pursuit: building ventilators to help tackle the coronavirus pandemic in his native U.K., where Prime Minister Boris Johnson is one of the latest and highest-profile figures to be confirmed infected. Johnson commissioned Dyson to develop the machine.

Reports say the U.K.’s National Health Service has ordered 10,000 units of a new ventilator the company has dubbed “CoVent.”

“Since I received a call from Boris Johnson 10 days ago, we have refocused resources at Dyson, and worked with TTP, The Technology Partnership, to design and build an entirely new ventilator, The CoVent,” the inventor wrote in a letter to employees announcing the order, per Forbes. He added, “This new device can be manufactured quickly, efficiently and at volume.”

Johnson took to Twitter early Friday to announce he had tested positive for coronavirus, mere days after issuing a sweeping stay-at-home order that allows police to issue fines to people who gather in groups in public. His health secretary, Matt Hancock, also said he had tested positive.

A Dyson spokesman told Forbes that British regulators have been closely involved throughout the creation of the CoVent. He said the company plans a final round of testing before the ventilator goes into production in the coming weeks at the historic Hullavington RAF airfield base, a Dyson-owned property where it had initially worked on its now-abandoned high-riding wagon EV project.

The company also reportedly plans to make the ventilator available to other countries, with plans to donate 5,000 units to the international effort to fight the pandemic. Dyson is best known for its bagless vacuum cleaners, hand dryers, air purifiers and cosmetic devices.

Ford announced earlier this week it was partnering with 3M and GE Healthcare to produce badly needed medical equipment including ventilators to help the coronavirus effort. GM also announced a partnership with Washington-based Ventec Life Systems, though that joint venture has been thrown into question after a report that the Trump administration is shopping other proposals.