Dyson, famous for its revolutionary vacuum cleaners and bladeless fans, is planning to venture into the electric car market in 2020.
Company founder James Dyson has confirmed his plans in a company-wide email. “I wanted you to hear it directly from me: Dyson has begun work on a battery electric vehicle, due to be launched by 2020,” he wrote. “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.”
Specifics have not been detailed, but Dyson wrote that the company won’t be sharing more information at this point. “At this stage we will not release any information,” he wrote in the email. “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.” We do know that the vehicle will use solid-state battery technology.
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The association between vacuum cleaner technology and electric cars might be a hard one to grasp, but the British company has already developed advanced batteries and charging systems, and its cyclone technology could also have an automotive application. Dyson prides itself on innovation, claiming a third of its employees are engineers, scientists, and inventors.
Various high-profile hirings by Dyson from notable industry heavyweights (Tesla and Aston Martin) suggests that when this electric car makes itself known, it will be something special. Considering that the entire automotive industry is going electric and that new electric car makers seem to be popping up almost monthly, Dyson’s entry into the electric car market might make a lot of sense.