It’s official: Dyson is planning an electric car which will be launched by 2020

Forget vacuums and hairdryers: British engineering giant Dyson is planning its own electric car which will be launched in the next three years, it revealed today.

The company, which has invested millions in a new Apple-style campus at a former RAF base in the Westcountry, has already built up a 400-strong team, and committed to spending £2bn on the project.

Today Dyson said he has been working on a car since 1993, when he showed an early iteration of an exhaust which trapped polluting diesel particulates on Blue Peter.

“To our chagrin, nobody at the time was interested in employing our diesel exhaust capture system and we stopped the project. The industry said that ‘disposing’ of the collected soot was too much of a problem! Better to breathe it in?”

Dyson said he had been working on a “clean” vehicle since 1993. (Source: Dyson)

However, he said the company’s work on electric batteries may give it the edge over the likes of Tesla.

“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. 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,” said Dyson today.

“We’ve started building an exceptional team that combines top Dyson engineers with talented individuals from the automotive industry.

“The project will grow quickly from here but at this stage we will not release any information. Competition for new technology in the automotive industry is fierce and we must do everything we can to keep the specifics of our vehicle confidential.”

Read more: Brexit uncertainty “an opportunity” says Dyson billionaire