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So one of the main reasons is that Singapore is part of the Asean trading bloc, which has a free trade agreement with China, which is the world's largest automotive market. And clearly, Dyson sees that as a target for its sales. Dyson already manufactures all its domestic appliances in Asia, and it has a factory in Singapore that manufactures the electric motors for its domestic appliances. So it knows the region fairly well. However, it says the reason for going to Singapore isn't cheap labour. In fact, they say it's comparatively high cost there. So the attractions include Singapore's pool of engineering skills and its know-how in high-tech manufacturing.
The decision will fuel nervousness about the British car industry's ability to thrive after Brexit. It also deals a blow to the government's hopes to promote high-volume manufacturing as part of its industrial strategy. But the main reason for the controversy is the fact that Sir James is a supporter of Brexit. So some people had thought he would choose the UK as the location for the car factory. However, Dyson says that Britain's departure from the EU has nothing to do with the decision. And in any case, it stopped manufacturing its goods here more than a decade ago.
Dyson is notoriously secretive about its research and development work, so we don't really know a lot about the vehicle. It's only said that it will be radically different from current models, and it's also likely to be expensive and not a sports car. However, a question lingers over the technology that will power the vehicles. Dyson is spending £1bn on the development of batteries, including solid-state batteries. These are seen as the holy grail for electric vehicles as they can hold higher power, and they charge in less time than conventional liquid lithium-ion cells. But Dyson has now said it could buy the batteries from an external supplier, and that would represent a setback to its ambitions on this project.
Overall Dyson is spending £2bn on the project but some analysts say that isn't a lot of money for building an electric car completely from scratch. The car is the first in a planned series, and it will have a relatively low production run. And Dyson is likely to go head to head in the luxury end of the car market against the likes of BMW, Jaguar, and Audi, as well as Elon Musk's Tesla. It's true that the Dyson brand has known enormous success in the quarter of a century since Sir James launched his first bagless vacuum cleaner, and this has made him one of Britain's richest men. But with a plan for the cars to go on sale by 2021, there is little margin for error.