What's the news?
Dyson, the vacuum cleaner maker lead by British engineer and inventor (and enthusiastic Brexiteer) James Dyson, has confirmed the worst-kept secret in the car world; that the firm intends to develop an electric car and put it on sale by 2020.
James Dyson himself made the announcement today, confirming that as many as 400 engineers have already been working on the project for some time and that he intends to sink as much as STG£2.5-billion into the project. As yet, the car exists purely in sketch form, and no working prototype yet exists.
The famed industrialist gave notice of the project in an email to employees, but it seems as if he will be playing the project's cards close to his chest, saying "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."
Dyson claims to have been concerned with the problems of air pollution since the late eighties, and included with his email sketches of exhaust filters for trucks based on the 'cyclonic' motors of his vacuum cleaners.
"Throughout, it has remained my ambition to find solution to the problem of global air pollution" said Dyson. "Some years ago, observing that automotive firms were not changing their spots, I committed the company to develop new battery technologies. I believed electrically powered vehicles would solve the vehicle pollution problem.
"At this moment, we finally have the opportunity to bring all our technologies into a single product. Rather than filtering emissions at the exhaust pipe, today we have the ability to solve it at source. So I wanted you to hear it directly from me: Dyson has begun work on a battery electric vehicle, due to be launched in 2020."
The car industry at large will doubtless be wary of another major 'disruptive' force entering the electric car market alongside Tesla, and Dyson certainly has a track record in creating waves within industries, from its popular vacuum cleaners to its hand-dryers. That said, it has also seen some significant failures, including a mashing machine model that never sold well, to a recent expensive abandonment of a major investment in Sakti3, a company spun out of research at the University of Michigan, which was trying to create ultra-efficient solid-state batteries. Many will also point to the last time a famous British technological industrialist tried to disrupt the car market with an electric car - that was Sir Clive Sinclair and the 'car' was the Sinclair C5...
Dyson, at least, does seem to be hiring in the right sort of talent to create a new electric car from scratch. David Wyer, a former head of purchasing for Aston Martin is already part of the Dyson electric car team, as is former Tesla communications executive Ricardo Reyes. The development of the car will be backed by a UK government grant of STG£16-million, even though Dyson has already said that the car will be radical, and not aimed at the mass-market, which usually means expensive and exclusive.
In fact, it was the UK government that accidentally outed the project in the first place, when it issued a press release saying that the grant was being awarded to Dyson for electric car research. The release was swiftly amended to say that the cash was for battery research.
Dyson will face significant competition by 2020. Next year, Jaguar (based just up the road from Dyson's Wiltshire base) will launch its all-electric I-Pace SUV, while Audi and Mercedes will not be far behind with rivals. Tesla will have its much-hyped Model 3 on wider sale by then, and Volkswagen should be on the cusp of introducing its potentially ground-breaking I.D. hatchback, which is set to boast a 500km one-charge range, and to have Passat cabin space in a body the size of a Volkswagen Golf.