Vacuum cleaner maker Dyson plans electric vehicle by 2020
Dyson — yes, the British vacuum-cleaner maker — is planning to build an electric vehicle.
Founder and chief engineer James Dyson told employees Tuesday the company would invest the equivalent of about $2.7 billion to build an electric vehicle by 2020. Dyson hopes its growing expertise in advanced batteries will pay off in a new area.
The announcement places Dyson among a growing group of newcomers hoping to capture the same momentum that powered upstart Silicon Valley tech company Tesla into the competitive global space for electric cars.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk repeatedly has said his company welcomes newcomers. Over the weekend, he sent a tweet chiding Mercedes-Benz for only spending $1 billion, not $10 billion, to expand its electric-car and battery efforts at its Alabama plant, citing a story about it on usatoday.com.
The list includes start-ups such as Faraday Future and Lucid Motors. Other tech companies tackling various aspects of self-driving cars include Google, Apple, Uber and Lyft.
Dyson’s electric-car hopes were the subject of considerable speculation, particularly after the company made a high-profile acquisition of electric-vehicle battery start-up Sakti3. In 2015, James Dyson told USA TODAY that the company would invest up to $1 billion in a battery factory.
The company declined to comment on where the vehicle might be built or how it might be sold.