In news you probably never expected to read, Dyson, the world-famous manufacturer of vacuum cleaners, has just announced that it is building an electric car.
Company founder James Dyson revealed the news in a letter addressed to the company’s staff, saying that the EV will be launched by 2020.
“Rather than filtering emissions at the exhaust pipe, today we have the ability to solve it at the source. So I wanted you to hear it directly from me: Dyson has begun work on a battery electric vehicle, due to be launched by 2020,” Dyson’s letter read.
Dyson has been working on its electric vehicle since 2015 and currently has a team of 400 engineers involved in the project.
In the letter, Dyson says his interest in pursuing environmentally-friendly vehicles started after he read a paper by the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in 1988 about diesel exhaust gases leading to premature death of laboratory mice and rats.
Over the next five years, Dyson created several different prototypes to trap harmful particles. However, the project was ultimately scrapped.
The Dyson car will be bespoke, feature a custom chassis and use battery technology developed in-house. The company says it has already committed 2 billion pounds ($2.6 billion) to the project.
Will Dyson succeed where Apple failed? Only time will tell.
James Dyson just announced to @Dyson employees that we’ve begun work on a battery electric vehicle, due to launch in 2020. pic.twitter.com/yUZNvIsYIi— Dyson (@Dyson) September 26, 2017