Upscale vacuum cleaner maker Dyson Ltd. wants to take the good fight to Tesla Inc., announcing that it plans to build an electric car that will go on sale in 2020.

Company founder James Dyson revealed the plans in an email to staff on Tuesday, saying that some 400 employees had been working on the project since 2015 and that they were aiming to deliver a vehicle that is “radically different” to those currently on the market.

Some £2 billion ($2.68 billion) has been allocated to the project, but at this stage no prototype has been built and how the vehicle will be different from existing electric models is not clear either. That said, the company is renowned for its cutting-edge consumer products such as its bagless vacuum cleaners and bladeless fan, although it’s unlikely it could continue the theme with an engineless car.

Dyson told The Guardian that consumers would have to “wait and see” what the car would look like, saying that “we don’t have an existing chassis … We’re starting from scratch. What we’re doing is quite radical.” But he did note that the company had already developed an electric motor and that two different battery types, claimed to be more efficient than existing technology, were under development.

Dyson is not saying how much the car would cost. But unsurprisingly, given its current expensive range of consumer goods, it did say it would be an expensive model: “Maybe the better figure is how much of a deposit they would be prepared to put down,” he added.

Building electric cars is not an easy task. Apple Inc., a company with far deeper pockets and broader tech experience than Dyson, abandoned efforts to build its own car in October last year and is instead pursing self-driving car technology that can be fitted to existing models. Tesla, despite being the most well-known electric car maker, has never been profitable and relies on government subsidies to continue trading.

Despite battling various critics over the years, James Dyson has always had a knack for being able to create world-beating, innovative products. Building a car is a whole different ballgame, but Dyson has as good a chance as anyone to deliver a world-changing electric vehicle.

Photo: James Dyson/Wikimedia Commons