Sir James Dyson alleged that he wanted to build his forthcoming electric vehicle at Honda’s UK production site in Swindon, but the Japanese car manufacturer refused the proposal.

The Daily Mail recently viewed a letter sent by Dyson to a local MP in Wiltshire, which revealed Dyson wanted to make the most of unused parts in Honda’s local factory.

“The most annoying thing is that 12 months ago we went to see Honda at Swindon,” he wrote. “We knew that they were only using one of their assembly buildings, [and we asked] if we could rent the unused one. They refused.”

However, Honda appears to see things differently and, in a statement, stated, “We are aware of a letter between Dyson and James Gray MP, the contents of which are factually incorrect.”

In the 12 months since talks between Honda and Dyson fell through, the Japanese carmaker has announced that it will close its Swindon factory in 2021 at the expense of 3500 local jobs. Additionally, Dyson has already committed to building its electric vehicles in Singapore and recently moved its global headquarters to the island city-state.

Dyson does still have a significant footprint in the UK thanks to its engineering institute in Hullavington, Wiltshire.

The company best known for making vacuum cleaners rocked the automotive world in September 2017 when announcing its intention to launch a family of electric vehicles and, in May this year, patent sketches were released of an electric SUV being developed by the company. Dyson hopes its plant in Singapore will become operational in 2020 and intends to launch its first model in 2021.