Dyson reveals £2.5bn electric car project

Sir James Dyson

Sir James Dyson

UK engineering company Dyson has revealed it is developing an electric car that will be on the road by 2020. Best known for developing innovative vacuum cleaners and hand-driers, Sir James Dyson has revealed that 400 staff been working on the vehicle project for the past two years at his company’s headquarters in Malmesbury, Wiltshire.

In an email sent to staff by Sir James revealed about £1bn would be spent on developing the car, and £1bn on creating the battery. The spending of another £500m in associated costs brings the total to £2.5bn. 

“I’m not a Johnny-come-lately to electric cars," Dyson said. "It’s been my ambition since 1998 when I was rejected by the industry that has happily been creating dirty vehicles, and governments have kept on allowing it.”

Dyson said he has long concerned by diesel particulate pollution. While he has designed filters for such engines, he has concluded that electric vehicles were the best way to progress. The cars will be fitted with Dyson’s air purifying technology to protect their drivers. He said: “It’s not the owner of the VW that has the problem, it’s the person driving behind them.”

He said was announcing the extent of the electric vehicle project plans after Dyson’s ambitions to develop a battery-powered car was accidentally disclosed in a government document last year.

No information was provided on the vehicle's cost, range or looks. “We don’t have an existing chassis," he wrote. "We’re starting from scratch. What we’re doing is quite radical.”

While prototype has yet been built, Dyson said the car’s electric motor was ready, while two different battery types were under development that he claimed were already more efficient than in existing electric cars.