Dyson electric cars to reach production by 2020

Dyson has confirmed plans for an all-electric car that will enter production in Britain by 2020 and has received support from the UK Government.

The car will be funded by £2 billion from Dyson and is currently under development at Dyson's Wiltshire headquarters by a team of 400 people. 

Dyson is keeping specific details, such as performance, range and production numbers, secret but it will not be a mass-market car akin to the Renault Zoe and Nissan Leaf; instead, it will be aimed at a more tech-oriented market. This suggests that it might be a rival to the Tesla Model S in terms of market position.

In the announcement of Dyson's electric car plan, Sir James Dyson took swipes at governments' push for diesels and the Dieselgate emissions scandal: "Governments around the world have encouraged the adoption of oxymoronically designated ‘clean diesel’ engines through subsidies and grants. Major auto manufacturers have circumvented and duped clean air regulations. As a result, developed and developing cities are full of smog-belching cars, lorries and buses. It is a problem that others are ignoring."

He revealed that a major aim is to reduce air pollution from cars "at the source", saying: "I committed the company to develop new battery technologies. I believed that electrically powered vehicles would solve the vehicle pollution problem. Dyson carried on innovating. At this moment, we finally have the opportunity to bring all our technologies together into a single product.

"We’ve started building an exceptional team that combines top Dyson engineers with talented individuals from the automotive industry. The team is already over 400 strong and we are recruiting aggressively. I’m committed to investing £2bn on this endeavour."

The firm is famous for its vortex vacuum cleaner but has been linked to the development of a car for almost a decade, despite having repeatedly denied the project's existence.

A Dyson spokesman previously told Autocar: "James [Dyson] did say that our new digital motor could power a car, but we are not working on, and have no plans to create, an electric car."

However, Dyson has now finally announced the car, having recently upped the rate of development with the hiring of several high-profile figures from the automotive market. Dyson has been interested in the filtration of diesel emissions for more than two decades. 

Dyson hired Aston Martin's former director of purchasing, David Wyer, to become its head of procurement in August. Wyer was the second Aston Martin executive in as many years to head to Dyson after product development director Ian Minards moved to the same role at the Wiltshire-based company. 

Wyer confirmed his exit from Aston Martin on professional social media site LinkedIn, saying: “So, after 22 years at Aston Martin, today is my last day as I leave one great company to take up an exciting opportunity with another, as head of procurement at Dyson."

The move caused a stir, as did Dyson's hiring of Tesla communications executive Ricardo Reyes earlier this year, fuelling a resurgence in speculation around the British company's development of an electric car.

Last year, speculation was stirred up when a government document read: “The Government is funding Dyson to develop a new battery electric vehicle at their headquarters in Malmesbury, Wiltshire. This will secure £174 million of investment in the area, creating over 500 jobs, mostly in engineering."

Soon after, the document was altered to say: “The Government is providing a grant of up to £16m to Dyson to support research and development for battery technology at their site in Malmesbury.”