The Dyson car project is to be led by former BMW and Infiniti boss Roland Krueger, the company has announced.
Krueger, whose most recent position has been president of Infiniti and senior vice-president of Nissan, will be based at Dyson’s expanding facilities in Singapore, allowing him to oversee the construction and development of the company’s manufacturing base in the country. His departure from Infiniti-Nissan to “pursue other opportunities” was only announced a fortnight ago.
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Jim Rowan, Dyson CEO, told Auto Express that Krueger would be an “excellent fit” for the British brand, which expects to start testing prototypes of its pure-electric car in 2020 and start selling it in 2021.
“Roland is experienced globally,” Rowan said. “He views the car industry as a global landscape, and that’s difficult to come by; he’s not attached to a particular region. He has knowledge of China, which is a key EV market, and he’s a designer by background but also understands commercial aspects.
“He’s a great fit for us - not just in terms of knowledge but also his style. He’s a disruptor. And based on his leadership, and the head of steam that we’ve already built up, we expect to go in and disrupt the car industry like we’ve done in other areas.”
Dyson now has 450 people working on its EV project, mainly at its Hullavington technical headquarters, where a test facility is being constructed. Rowan said the firm was still “on track” to deliver the project on time, and confirmed that it will invest a billion dollars (£775million) in it during 2019 alone - although he admitted this figure would be spread across more than one country instead of being focused on Hullavington.
Little is known about the vehicle, which has been tipped to feature cutting-edge solid-state battery technology. Rowan declined to provide further details, saying, “People are looking to see where in the market we intend to play - size, range, and so forth. That’s competitive information so we’re keeping that under wraps. And we’re not going to disclose exactly which battery technology will be in our vehicle.”
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