Dyson to street electric vehicle by 2020

The man credited with revolutionizing vacuum technology is now going to try his hand at automotive manufacturing.

James Dyson confirmed this week that his British technology company known for its innovated designs of vacuum cleaners, hand dryers, bladeless fans, heaters and hair dryers is working on a battery electric vehicle due to be launched by 2020.

“We’ve started building an exceptional team that combines top Dyson engineers with talented individuals from the automotive industry,” Dyson wrote in an email to his company announcing the new strategy.

“The team is already over 400 strong, and we are recruiting aggressively. I’m committed to investing £2bn on this endeavour.”

Dyson said he had staff working on cyclonic filters for vehicle exhaust systems to trap particulates as far back as 1990. Several working prototypes had been built by 1993 but he said no one seemed interested in using his diesel exhaust capture system.

“The industry said that disposing of the collected soot was too much of a problem! Better to breathe it in?”

He wrote that his ambition to find a solution to the global problem of air pollution has maintained and that he committed the company to develop new battery technologies.

“At this moment, we finally have the opportunity to bring all our technologies together into a single product. Rather than filtering emissions at the exhaust pipe, today we have the ability to solve it at the source,” he noted.

There is no word exactly how this vehicle will get to market or where it will be sold. Additional details on price, vehicle style or distribution networks were also not revealed.