Dyson, the company best known for making fancy vacuums, just hired Tesla’s former spokesperson, Ricardo Reyes, to be its communication chief. And now the rumors are flying that Dyson is gearing up to break out of the living room and into the electric car business.
Speculation about an electric car from Dyson has been springing up every few months, as the company has slowly expanded out of its traditional air-purifying and vacuuming market. Importantly for the rumor mill, Reyes oversaw the launch of Tesla’s Model S and Model X cars.
“We’re not allowed to comment on it unfortunately,” said Dyson PR when Inverse called to ask about the validity of the rumors. “The only thing we are allowed to say is that historically we have recruited from a wide range of backgrounds,” they said, pointing out that Dyson is works with a number of different technological advances. “Ricardo is bringing in a strong background in wide range of technologies.”
Now just imagine this nifty engineering on a car. Ball tires, anyone?
Past drivers of electric car rumors have included Dyson’s move toward solid-state battery technology. Dyson acquired battery startup Sakti3 since 2015, and last year the company announced it would spend $1.2 billion on battery development for the next five years. According to government documents the UK government also appears to have given Dyson funding for the development of an electric car and battery technology.
With its release of the $400 Dyson Supersonic hair dryer in September, the company started to publicaly move out of their traditional market. Reyes told Bloomberg, “Dyson is growing from the living room to the bathroom and beyond, so people are going to interact with it a lot more.”
So it sounds like it is totally possible that Dyson is looking for a new machine to carry around some of its super efficient electric motors.
Honestly, if Dyson can make a car as cool looking as its vacuums, Tesla will finally have some real competition.
