Dyson Investing $260m in Engineering Center for Electric Car

Vacuum manufacturer Dyson has committed to a $260 million (£200m) investment in a new research and development center in Wiltshire, UK, where it will engineer and test its upcoming lineup of electric vehicles.

Dyson announced last year that it is planning to launch a three-car lineup of electric vehicles over the next few years. The company is looking to expand its business outside of its current realm, saying it’s now “realising ambitious plans to develop new technologies with global teams focused on the development of solid state battery cells, high-speed electric motors, vision systems, machine learning technologies, and AI.”

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The company recently purchased restored hangars at a former World War Two air base called Hullavington Airfield, where it is setting up its new technology center. Here, Dyson will set up not only a research facility, but also a test track that may include a dynamic handling track, an off-road route, a hilly handling route and different test slopes. It has already invested $109m (£84m) into the site as part of phase one of the project and will inject another $150m (£116m) when it begins setting up the test track in phase two.

Dyson says 400 members of its automotive team have already moved into the space, which will eventually be able to accommodate up to 2,000 employees. The company is also recruiting for another 300 positions for its automotive sector.

“Our growing automotive team is now working from Dyson’s state-of-the-art hangars at Hullavington Airfield,” said company CEO Jim Rowan. “It will quickly become a world-class vehicle testing campus where we hope to invest £200m, creating more high-skilled jobs for Britain. We are now firmly focused on the next stage of our automotive project strengthening our credentials as a global research and development organisation.”