UK inventor Sir James Dyson's firm may enter auto sector

Dyson, the engineering group famed for its bag-less vacuum cleaners and blade-less fans and the superior designs that went into them, is not ruling out anything, even cars.

According to Max Conze, CEO of the Wiltshire-based firm, Dyson's 2,500 engineers had the potential to ship what he referred to as ''breakthrough'' applied sciences, suffieldtimes.com reported.

''We've got a number of concepts in several areas,'' he stated, as Dyson reported annual outcomes that confirmed turnover rose 10 per cent £1.38 billion and earnings were up 13 per cent to £367 million.

UK inventor James Dyson's eponymous appliances firm has made a $15-million investment in cutting-edge, solid-state battery company Sakti3. (See: Dyson invests $15 million in Michigan battery company).

Conze exercised oversight of the enlargement of the corporate's Wiltshire base.

''Sakti3's focus is on creating batteries for our hand-held units,'' he said. ''However Sakti3 has the perfect remit to ship breakthrough know-how into different industries although I couldn't touch upon what they were.''

''Should you do what we do and invent disruptive applied sciences and have hundreds of engineers engaged on these tasks for so long as 15 years, then you definitely need to hold that work within the lab [until it's ready],'' Conze stated.

Dyson now sells 90 per cent of its products outside the UK, and had doubled its business in China.

The company has a strong presence in other Asian markets, such as Japan and also showed strong sales in Europe.

It had focused research on cordless technology, sales of which grew by 68 per cent last year.

Of the 2,500 workforce at its Wiltshire headquarters about half work in research and development, to help bring out new technology such as bladeless fans, purifiers and humidifiers.

Sir James said, "We spent an additional 40% on research and development last year and now spend £3m a week as we develop expertise in entirely new areas," BBC reported.

He had said the government needed to do more to encourage engineers to stay in the UK so they could produce hi-tech exports.

The company in 2014, invested £1.5 billion in its global technology programme.