UK entrepreneur and inventor of the Dyson vacuum cleaner, Sir James Dyson (pictured), has confirmed his company is accelerating its work on battery technology as part of a GBP2 billion ($2.7bn) programme to launch an electric vehicle (EV) by 2020.
A Dyson spokesperson told BBB that details of the project, including battery technology to power the EV being developed by the company, are being kept under wraps.
The announcement comes two years after Dyson joined the race to develop energy storage systems— buying a solid-state lithium-ion battery start-up and outlining plans to build a battery factory.
In an e-mail sent to Dyson employees around the world on 26 September, Sir James stressed “we must do everything we can to keep the specifics of our vehicle confidential” because of fierce competition in the industry.
However, Sir James confirmed that Dyson had “carried on innovating” since he “committed the company to develop new battery technologies” some years ago— as part of a personal quest to combat air pollution caused by vehicles.
Sir James said “the latest digital motors and energy storage systems power the Dyson Supersonic hair dryer and cord-free vacuum line”. Now the company has “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,” Sir James said. “I’m committed to investing GBP2bn on this endeavour. The project will grow quickly from here, but at this stage we will not release any information.”
