World-leading vacuum cleaner manufacturer, Dyson has ambitions to diversify its product range and has announced plans to conduct further pioneering research and development into battery technology.
The home-grown, multibillion pound UK company, approaching its 25th anniversary, has already invested over £100m over the past five years researching batteries and their potential in the future. Max Conze, Chief Executive of Dyson has, however, pledged that that figure will rise to £1bn by the year 2020. He insisted that energy storage and, in particular, energy density, was the greatest engineering challenge in the 21st century.
The company is hoping to produce statistical data and innovative designs that support the development of batteries for future use. It is has suggested that a battery capable of twice the energy density and storage of existing batteries would be of significant benefit to mobility in the future.
Dyson has, for a number of years, expressed a keen interest in the battery market. Back in 2014, the company took a shareholder stake in the US-based battery manufacturer, Sakti3, before acquiring the company outright. Sakti3 is known for developing solid-state lithium-ion batteries, a much lighter and more powerful series of batteries than those currently on the market. Before the merger, the vacuum cleaner specialist has also previously some $15bn in Sakti3âs researc hand development programme â an investment which contributed to the invention of a battery with twice the storage capacity and at less than a third of the cost.
And while the last weekâs budget may have brought bad news to many, it has in fact provided a stepping stone for Dyson on its route to battery prestige. The government has awarded the company £16m to continue its research into increasing battery storage and energy density.
Despite renewed emphasis on battery storage, the company continues to carry out major research in a number of sectors including anything from aerodynamics to robotics and artificial intelligence. And with robot vacuum cleaners surely on the near horizon, Dyson remains at the top of its game in the vacuum cleaner industry, and on its way up in a good number of other lucrative sectors.
