Dyson has canned work on its long-awaited electric car.

The results of the £2.5 billion project will never see the light of day because of commercial pressures.

Keen Brexiteer and inventor Sir James Dyson said his engineers had worked on a "fantastic electric car" but it was not "commercially viable".

In an email to staff, Dyson said "this is not a product failure, or a failure of the team, for whom this news will be hard to hear and digest."

"The Dyson automotive team has developed a fantastic car; they have been ingenious in their approach while remaining faithful to our philosophies... We simply can no longer see a way to make it commercially viable."

The Dyson Board "has therefore taken the very difficult decision to propose the closure of our automotive project".

Dyson had even tried to sell the business. "We have been through a serious process to find a buyer for the project which has, unfortunately, been unsuccessful so far."

We reported earlier this year on patents around the project which indicated that the car would be a small SUV or crossover. 

The project always seemed a stretch for the company, but the project has been in motion for some years and Dyson wasn't secret about its intentions. 

It announced that there would be a £200 million investment in UK development facilities - mostly built - and that 500 UK workers were involved with the project at its Malmesbury, Wiltshire HQ. 

The car itself was to be built in Singapore, where Dyson has a large base.