British billionare inventor, Sir James Dyson, owner of the Dyson appliance company – known for its vacuum cleaners, fans and heaters – announced last week that his company will spend more than £2 billion (R36 billion) to build a zero-emissions electric vehicle by 2020.
He said that the Dyson vehicles will be “radical and different.”
“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,” he stated in a letter to his employees.
“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.”
As word about the vacuum cleaner company that will start building EVs spread, Aston Martin tweeted this tongue-in-cheek rendering of an Aston Martin vacuum cleaner from company CEO Andy Palmer’s Twitter account.
Although we doubt that Aston Martin has any intention of producing a vacuum cleaner, the marque has just unveiled its speedboat, the AM37, in Monaco.
Congratulations @Dyson on joining our independent British car company club. We’re looking forward to branching out into vacuum’s…… 😀 pic.twitter.com/TCFa7y4niz
— Andy Palmer (@AndyatAston) September 27, 2017
A rendering of a fictitious Aston Martin vacuum cleaner.