Dyson to build electric vehicles in Singapore – reports

Dyson to build electric vehicles in Singapore – reports

It’s no secret that Dyson is venturing into the electric vehicle market, and the latest news from multiple news sources, including BBC News, The Verge and Autocar, is that the British appliance maker has zeroed in on a production site – and it’s Singapore.

The company announced that board members have approved the construction of a “purpose-built advanced” manufacturing plant in the island state, which is set to be completed in 2020. In an email sent to Dyson employees, CEO Jim Rowan said that construction on the new facility will kick off in December.

Dyson, of course, is no stranger to building its products in Singapore, having opened a factory in Tuas in 2013 to produce its digital motors – its term for permanent-magnet synchronous electric motors, which many electric vehicles currently use – in its vacuum cleaners and hairdryers. The production of those products, meanwhile, had long moved from Malmesbury, Wiltshire to Malaysia – since 2002, in fact.

Dyson to build electric vehicles in Singapore – reports

This latest decision would allow Dyson to leverage its existing supply network in the region. According to BBC News, the company insisted that not building the plant in Britain – despite founder James Dyson being a champion of the country’s decision to leave the European Union – had nothing to do with cost.

“Singapore also offers access to high-growth markets as well as an extensive supply chain and a highly skilled workforce,” said Rowan. “Singapore has a comparatively high cost base, but also great technology expertise and focus. It is therefore the right place to make high-quality technology-loaded machines, and the right place to make our electric vehicle.”

The plant is part of a £2.5 billion (RM13.5 billion) investment in the EV project, which will spawn a high-end, low-volume car in 2021 and two cheaper, mass-produced models later on. Dyson is already gearing up operations in anticipation of the cars’ impending launch, having opened its new technology campus at the former Royal Air Force base in Hullavington, Wiltshire that will also form its proving ground.

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Jonathan Lee

After trying to pursue a career in product design, Jonathan Lee decided to make the sideways jump into the world of car journalism instead. He therefore appreciates the aesthetic appeal of a car, but for him, the driving experience is still second to none.

 

Comments

  • passion on Oct 23, 2018 at 6:51 pm

    Dyson vacuum cleaners and hairdryers made in M’sia. More advanced tech then many cars otr

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 11 Thumb down 7
    • John Minum Teh 8X on Oct 23, 2018 at 10:02 pm

      dyson dont want to give 30% of their company free

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 3 Thumb down 1
    • Dyson Fanboy on Oct 24, 2018 at 8:15 am

      Sangat malu. Singapore labour is so expensive. Labour is cheaper in Malaysia. But they choose Singapore.

      In BFM this morning, Dyson said this is because Singapore got talent. Malaysia has no talent. Lagi memalukan

      What is our local universities doing?

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 51 Thumb down 13
      • Our local unis are churning out highly skilled workforce going into Singapore for work. Where else would they find highly skilled workforce there?

        Like or Dislike: Thumb up 18 Thumb down 1
      • Graduan Bijak on Oct 24, 2018 at 11:15 am

        Not belittling my fellow peers.

        Imho, our local uni grads’ proficiency of English, critical thinking and communication skills sadly appalling. Yet high salary demands

        Like or Dislike: Thumb up 39 Thumb down 1
        • Yusri on Oct 24, 2018 at 12:20 pm

          Political parties may change but it is still the same 1.6 million lazy Government servants who are lembap. They are always looking for freebies

          Like or Dislike: Thumb up 6 Thumb down 19
          • Sick & Tired on Oct 24, 2018 at 3:58 pm

            Without these 1.6million Government servants, who will keep you safe at home, put out the fires you inadvertently started, ensure your security, keep you healthy, and enable you to travel?

            You might as well stay in a cave and never come out.

            Like or Dislike: Thumb up 22 Thumb down 3
          • Noice!

            Like or Dislike: Thumb up 5 Thumb down 0
      • John Minum Teh 8X on Oct 24, 2018 at 11:48 am

        Whole world is moving towards EV. Our NAP got no clue about this. Even Proton also got no clue about this. Showcased Iriz EV 5 years ago….until now habok pun tarak ada

        Proton said will launch Hybrid 10 years ago. We are still waiting

        Like or Dislike: Thumb up 7 Thumb down 1
      • Hamdan Tahir on Oct 24, 2018 at 12:27 pm

        Malaysia is known to have the biggest corruption scandal in the world’s history.

        Why should Mat Salleh invest here?

        Like or Dislike: Thumb up 2 Thumb down 7
        • Avenger on Oct 24, 2018 at 4:18 pm

          Do they care? Nuh-uh. During the height of the corruption scandals like Forex, BNM, Maminco, etc, they still come invest here.

          Like or Dislike: Thumb up 10 Thumb down 2
      • kzm (Member) on Oct 24, 2018 at 12:39 pm

        Well suppose Indo, Philippines, Viet n Thai even more malu right? Labour cost a lot cheaper than bolehland n have far more pipu.. yet Dyson choose Singapore.

        Like or Dislike: Thumb up 12 Thumb down 0
    • Bye Bye MAI on Oct 24, 2018 at 8:55 am

      Now Vinfast from Vietnam and Dyson from Singapore will conquer the EV market in the whole of Asia.

      Bye bye Proton. Bye bye Malaysia. Please close down MAI. MAI is doing nothing.

      Money is just going elsewhere.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 29 Thumb down 7
    • John Minum Teh 8X on Oct 24, 2018 at 11:32 am

      Investors are scared of the high corruption level in Malaysia. But luckily that is changing now. The past 5 months, investors are beginning to have confidence in Malaysia back again

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 18 Thumb down 12
      • kzm (Member) on Oct 24, 2018 at 12:39 pm

        Haha..lol

        Like or Dislike: Thumb up 10 Thumb down 1
      • Lolwhut? on Oct 24, 2018 at 10:03 pm

        Coming back again? Did you even read the new posting or you assumed Singapore is still part of Malaysia? Wakeup! Stop sleeping and dreaming.

        Like or Dislike: Thumb up 7 Thumb down 2
      • investors are scared of the government, its policies and the ministers… the heads give a bad reputation about how the economy here is so fragile. they even chase a lot of foreign investors out, but then give stupid projects to cronies..

        Like or Dislike: Thumb up 5 Thumb down 0
    • alldisc on Oct 24, 2018 at 12:14 pm

      anyone remembers Tsla is offering anyone to use its electric technology free, its not patented. Tesla is smart. the new EV company should also be smart. go approach Tesla. just for the powertrain while body and the rest delepoed in house.

      good enough.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 0
    • Facebook on Oct 24, 2018 at 3:29 pm

      Dyson vacuum cleaner and hairdryer is only assembled in Malaysia not Made in Malaysia… the motor is produced in Singapore plant…

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 0
  • sampan 250kmph on Oct 23, 2018 at 8:46 pm

    Singapore roads will be dust-free with Dyson vacuum cleaning cars commuting daily on the road.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 22 Thumb down 1
  • Even Dyson ran away from Bapak and his obsesion with Perotiga. What a waste of industry potential and jobs. All becoz Johor voted wrongly now all go to SG.

    Well-loved. Like or Dislike: Thumb up 287 Thumb down 33
    • John Minum Teh 8X on Oct 23, 2018 at 9:56 pm

      Same reason why Thailand became the Detroit of Malaysia…60 years of corruption in Malaysia. All lari to Thailand and set up billion dollar plants

      This what happens when you are lazy and want easy money suap

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 5 Thumb down 7
      • Bruno Mars on Oct 24, 2018 at 10:06 pm

        For someone who assumed Singapore is still in Malaysia, what you wrote here can freely be ignored.

        Like or Dislike: Thumb up 5 Thumb down 0
    • Bye Bye MAI on Oct 24, 2018 at 8:56 am

      Give free jobs to the MAI staff. Just to upkeep MAI alone cost over RM100 mil per year.

      But what do we see? All investments go to Vietnam, Singapore and Thailand.

      Malaysia kosong

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 28 Thumb down 3
    • another fake news from you john? Stop blaming the world and work harder

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 18 Thumb down 18
      • Isobel Chin on Oct 24, 2018 at 10:22 am

        Unlike a jobless runt with the many fake names, john isn’t spending his whole time here talking bullsh!t. Mirror yourself dude.

        Like or Dislike: Thumb up 13 Thumb down 2
    • Ghani on Oct 24, 2018 at 9:45 am

      We had setup Iskandar for them but they seen what happened here and ran away from our instability. What a wasted chance.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 29 Thumb down 0
    • Darren on Oct 24, 2018 at 9:52 am

      Fully agree, bro!

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 14 Thumb down 0
    • S.Ibrahim on Oct 24, 2018 at 10:36 am

      Agreed!

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 3 Thumb down 0
  • Aero (Member) on Oct 23, 2018 at 10:19 pm

    Very good news ! I’m happy for our neighbour; looks like Singapore will be making cars again (more on that later). Ever since Dyson announced plans for EVs, I was hoping they’d choose Johor as their production hub. But I guess Singapore is just as welcome; because Dyson Johor will surely be part of the supply chain as well.

    From Dyson’s perspective, they should find Singapore the most accommodating of all their hubs; Singapore has plenty of high-skilled labour, they are very much a corporatocracy and they are unaffected by the Brexit / US-China trade war. Also, Singapore has the highest EV penetration rate in ASEAN, they even have EV R&D facilities even though they don’t produce cars locally. However, there are many Singaporean automotive vendors which make high-value and high-tech parts for global export.

    Dyson will have an effective monopoly in Singapore when it comes to EV production. If Dyson came to Malaysia, they will be held back by our NAP and will eventually face up against future EV competition from the car companies already operating in Malaysia.

    Dyson probably realises that they cannot sell many EVs in Singapore or ASEAN. Like their expensive vacuum cleaners, they will need to export the vast majority of their EVs to Europe, China and North America.

    This might come as a surprise to many but Singapore is no stranger to the automotive world. Did you know that the very first car assembly plant in ASEAN was built in Singapore ? Namely, the Ford Malaya SKD plant in 1926. Later in 1941, Ford Malaya built a CKD plant, also in Singapore.

    In the mid 1960s, the joint Malaysia-Singapore governments were planning to set up a joint automotive industry with foreign investment. Some 20 + car companies from Britain, Europe, America, Australia and Japan expressed interest in investing in Malaysia-Singapore. However, when Singapore and Malaysia became separated, both governments started to compete for foreign investment. The Malaysian gov. banned imports of Singaporean-built cars, while Singapore’s gov. created their own automotive policy.

    The foreign car companies were very disappointed with the turn of events, and tried to push for mutual co-operation and free-trade between Malaysia and Singapore in the auto industry. They warned (in 1966) that if the two governments did not co-operate, Malaysia’s/Singapore’s automotive industry would not be economically feasible. At the time (late 1960s), Malaysia-Singapore were the richest and largest automotive market in ASEAN. Thailand and Indonesia were still fledgling and Vietnam was a warzone.

    But the two governments didn’t listen to the warnings from the car companies, and they pushed ahead with their own agendas. By 1970, Malaysia and Singapore had about 5-6 plants each; the plants in Singapore were almost entirely backed by Western car companies, while most Japanese car companies chose to invest in Malaysia. At the time, it was not apparent, but the die was cast.

    In just a few short years, both governments began to realise that a local auto industry would not be sustainable. The local market in both countries were just too small, exports were non-existent, and local content was also too low. In the 1970s, car prices inflated significantly in both Malaysia and Singapore.

    However, Singapore was faced with a much grimmer situation. In the 1970s, Japanese cars started to displace the traditional Western car companies in both Malaysia and Singapore. For Malaysia, it wasn’t a major issue, because many of the popular Japanese cars were also assembled in Malaysia. But Singapore’s plants were almost entirely Western-backed (Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, British Leyland, Ford, General Motors, Volvo etc.). Singapore couldn’t hold off the Japanese car invasion.

    After just 15 years, Singapore’s government decided it was not worth pursuing an automotive industry, and announced in 1979, that preferential treatment / tax rebates for CKD cars would be discontinued by 1981 (in other words, no more protection). By 1980, all the big car plants in Singapore, including Ford Malaya, would shut down. In the decades that followed, Singapore’s government became more and more ‘anti-car’. In 1990, the COE tax was enforced, and car prices in Singapore skyrocketed. Now, you need to be a millionaire to afford a car in Singapore.

    But in the late 1970s, Malaysia’s auto industry was not doing too well either. But one man was determined to change that… that man was Dr. Mahathir. At first, he pushed for higher local content in CKD cars. Then he pushed for a ‘Malaysian car’. When he became PM, he made the ‘Malaysian car (Proton)’ a reality. Unlike Singapore, Malaysia decided it was worth protecting their auto industry and then some. The rest is history.

    What would have happened if both governments listened to the car companies and co-operated ? Maybe both Malaysia-Singapore would have become the dominant automotive hub in ASEAN ?

    I wish to point out that the United States and Canada have long had a very healthy and mutually beneficial relationship in the auto industry. Till this day, Canada builds many different cars for the U.S. (and vice versa). It’s like a big brother (U.S.A.)-little brother (Canada) relationship. Generally speaking, more niche and premium cars are built in Canada, while the U.S. builds more people’s cars. Even now, Chrysler still makes their 300C in Canada, and even Japanese cars like the Lexus RX are built in Canada for export to the U.S.. Even though Canada has no ‘national car company’, they still made 2.2 million cars in 2017 ! (more than Thailand, Indonesia and even the U.K.)

    One could imagine that a similar big brother-little brother relationship could have worked out between Malaysia and Singapore in the auto industry. But in 1968, the two governments decided protection was better than free & fair trade. Look where that mentality ultimately got us.

    Anyway, I just wanted to share the story of the Malaysia-Singapore auto industry. Cautionary tale or just curiosity, a little history lesson can do you no wrong. History will always repeat itself… because it’s in our human nature to forget. If you want to predict the future, just look back to the past. If you want a better future, just learn from the past.

    Sorry for the long comment, got carried away again. Thanks for reading.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 30 Thumb down 1
    • Kugan2018 on Oct 24, 2018 at 9:02 pm

      Nice one Aero bruh. 1965 when Singapore and Malaysia became separated. So thats how long Malaysia gonna try play catch and level up, two full working generations …

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 2 Thumb down 0
  • Leafable on Oct 23, 2018 at 10:43 pm

    Thats a BIG WHITE ELEPHANT in the room. National Car project, no long term EV policy, roti canai policy on business decision, etc are enough to steer Mr. Dyson to our neighbour. And thats tons of talents engineers in Singapore and most are from Malaysia because they get 5 times the pay.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 3 Thumb down 1
  • we still thinking of protiga..?? we should go for EV

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 6 Thumb down 0
  • Add A Comment on Oct 24, 2018 at 7:23 am

    Come on Dyson…you can do better than this. Malaysia with zero expertise, knowledge and any sort of experience in electrical motor is coming out with our own EV for mass production in 2020. But you can only build your plant in 2020 and a low volume car in 2021? Come on…You can do better right?

    – I Have Just Added A Comment –

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 4 Thumb down 1
  • common sensor on Oct 24, 2018 at 7:52 am

    Infrastructure in Singapore is better. Singapore government is more transparent. Politically is quieter. So, Singapore is indeed a better choice. Labor can get from Malaysia cheaply, and easily accessible through jambatan bengkok .. good for Johor!!

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • Not Toyota Fan on Oct 24, 2018 at 8:09 am

    Maju lah Singapura.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 8 Thumb down 3
  • azrai on Oct 24, 2018 at 8:17 am

    Tun M, where’s your Pro3?

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 8 Thumb down 0
  • cuntfook on Oct 24, 2018 at 8:43 am

    This should have been our third national car project.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 0
  • thepolygon on Oct 24, 2018 at 8:50 am

    The fan already so expensive… I dare not think of the car price.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 6 Thumb down 0
  • Semi-Value (Member) on Oct 24, 2018 at 10:22 am

    carmaking in singapore…er?

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 2 Thumb down 1
  • PitStop on Oct 24, 2018 at 10:36 am

    People here lamenting about why he does not starting the EV venture here in Malaysia, but back home in the UK, they are more angry. Because why? James Dyson is a proponent Brexit supporter, and want to support his countryman’s jobs, so it seems.

    If he does not even want to help his country, why he and his company should start his venture here? Stop with the entitled mentality, thinking that we have ALL the requirement for that type of projects.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • SliRoth on Oct 24, 2018 at 10:51 am

    1. need to quickly verify this report as Spore govt is very quick to play on such news viz Malaysia.
    2. Get our Minister(s) incharge of Foreign Direct Investment to rolled up their sleeves and get Dyson to come here instead. Please worked out our incentives, assistance offering prior seeing them
    3. should this KPI didnt materialise, Minister(s) responsible to identify alternative FDI investors and secure them quickly.
    4 and lastly, we are already talking too much about 3rd National cars, our competing nations are already doing it. Now is the time for affirmative actions. no more bollocking around, please!

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • tokmoh. on Oct 24, 2018 at 12:19 pm

    Well done Madani, another investment out of the country, and this conman say we will be EEV hub of SEA kek.

    Roll his head edi la, tok kok overpaid clown.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 3 Thumb down 0
  • Gabriel on Oct 24, 2018 at 12:45 pm

    What is the new government doing? Dyson has manufacturing plant in Johor for their vacuum, but why the electrical car manufacturing plant went to Singapore.
    The new government need to wake up la…

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 10 Thumb down 0
  • Tun M had failed in his attempt to convince Dyson.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 5 Thumb down 0
  • qaogao on Oct 24, 2018 at 1:25 pm

    Their hairdryer is priced at rm1,000+ already. How much would you think their low cost car be?

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
 

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