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Dyson will build electric cars in Singapore for a 2021 launch

The company is making fast progress on its expansion into automotive and wants to start manufacturing ASAP.

Katie Collins Senior European Correspondent
Katie a UK-based news reporter and features writer. Officially, she is CNET's European correspondent, covering tech policy and Big Tech in the EU and UK. Unofficially, she serves as CNET's Taylor Swift correspondent. You can also find her writing about tech for good, ethics and human rights, the climate crisis, robots, travel and digital culture. She was once described a "living synth" by London's Evening Standard for having a microchip injected into her hand.
Katie Collins
dyson-automotive-manufacturing-facility-render-1

An artist's impression of Dyson's EV manufacturing plant.

Dyson

British tech company Dyson announced on Tuesday its plans to build an electric vehicle manufacturing plant in Singapore, as part of its plans to expand into automotive.

The company is best known for making vacuum cleaners , hand dryers and hairdryers, but in 2017 it revealed it had starting working on an electric vehicle. In August of this year it announced the opening of an electric car test center at one of its existing sites in the UK. The factory where the cars will be built in Singapore is due to be completed in 2020, keeping the company on track for its scheduled 2021 automotive launch.

"Dyson's growing automotive team is making excellent progress from the state-of-the-art hangars at Hullavington Airfield in Wiltshire where we are investing £200m," said Dyson CEO Jim Rowan in a letter to employees. "Clearly we now need to move quickly towards manufacturing and assembly."

Singapore is already home to Dyson's manufacturing operations, and although it's a relatively expensive place to build technology, Rowan emphasized that the city-state also has the right expertise and focus for the job. There are already 1,100 Dyson employees working in Singapore, and the company expects that number to double in the coming years.

Earlier this year, James Dyson -- the British inventor who founded the company -- said that its first electric car won't be cheap and won't be a sports car, which could put it in direct competition with Tesla's Model S and Model X.