Following the recruitment of its second Aston Martin executive in a year, speculation grows that home appliance manufacturer Dyson may be building an electric car.
Announced this week, David Wyer, former Director of Purchasing for Aston Martin, will join Dyson as Head of Procurement.
Other notable recent hires include former Tesla spokesperson Ricardo Reyes in January, and former Aston Martin Product Development Director Ian Minards in September 2016.
The recent hires support speculation birthed from the release of a government document, which mentioned funding for Dyson to build “a new battery electric vehicle at their headquarters in Malmesbury, Wiltshire” in March 2016.
Dyson also announced in February it would be building a new 517-acre campus in the English countryside, used to expand its R&D in batteries, robotics and artificial intelligence.
Reports state that Dyson has been expanding its research team specialising in machine learning and autonomous systems – key aspects for developing self-driving vehicles.
The move comes after Dyson’s acquisition of solid-state battery startup Sakti3 (for $90 million in 2015). Dyson has further committed to spend $1.29 on battery development.
When queried by Bloomberg, Dyson did not comment directly on the hire.
