Vacuum Cleaner Company Dyson is Building an Electric Car

As a brand, Dyson is known primarily for its vacuum cleaners, as well as its heaters and fans. If founder James Dyson gets his way, though, the company will soon be known for building electric cars, too.

Today, Dyson announced that it’s developing an electric car of its own. As odd as it may be to hear that a vacuum cleaner company is working on a car, this announcement didn’t necessarily come out of left field. Rumors of a Dyson-developed electric car have been swirling for a while. And as it turns out, for good reason. The same announcement confirmed that the company has been working on this project for the last two and a half years. In fact, it claims to already have 400 employees in its automotive division and still be recruiting.

While the idea of a vacuum cleaner company making cars is a little odd, Dyson says the company has spent the last several years developing new battery technologies. The motors and batteries it uses for hair dryers and wireless vacuums should, at least in theory, help Dyson get its electric car project off the ground. But at the moment, there’s no way to tell how well Dyson’s technology will carry over into automotive applications.

Dyson says it’s prepared to invest $2.7 billion (£2 billion) in the project and that it will have the car ready for sale by 2020. It says it won’t release any more information on the car at this stage. Supposedly, that’s to keep its competitors from getting an idea of what Dyson is working on. Hopefully, we’ll get more information in the next year or two.

Source: Dyson

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