Dyson has released a £299 hairdryer

British manufacturer Dyson, best known for its bagless vacuum cleaners, has launched a £299 "Supersonic" hairdryer.

The Supersonic hairdryer, Dyson's first is said to be quieter and less damaging to hair than existing hairdryers on the market.

It is powered by a miniaturised air pump in the handle, which produces a focused jet of air that can be used to dry and style hair.

"Hairdryers can be heavy, inefficient and make a racket," said founder Sir James Dyson, in a statement. "By looking at them further we realised that they can also cause extreme heat damage to hair. I challenged Dyson engineers to really understand the science of hair and develop our version of a hair dryer, which we think solves these problems."

Dyson said it invested £50 million into the product, which will cost roughly twice the price of hairdryers used by professional hair dressers when it goes on sale in the UK in June. Dyson claims over 1010 miles of real human hair were used in testing.

Thidathip Tawichai, an analyst at Euromonitor International, told the BBC: "£300 is very expensive and a lot to invest in a hairdryer. People like to follow fashions and spend a little money trying different things."

In addition to hairdryers and hoovers, Dyson is also understood to be working on an electric car with the help of government funding.

Dyson is spending £1 billion over the next five years on developing a new type of battery, according to Bloomberg. Last year, Dyson acquired a battery startup called Sakti3 for $90 million (£64 million). The spinout company from the University of Michigan has a lithium-ion battery that uses new materials and has moved on from a conventional liquid electrolyte around today.