Dyson's Singapore electric dream is all about personal cars

Singapore

HOME appliance maker Dyson's bid for the electric vehicle market involves a bet on personal cars, chief executive James "Jim" Rowan has said.

Calling that market "the biggest segment, certainly" in the electric landscape, he added that it will likely see the fastest adoption on consumer-driven uptake and industry trends such as sustainable transport.

Mr Rowan spoke to the press on Tuesday about privately owned Dyson's ongoing, Singapore-driven electric vehicle dreams, which have a £2 billion (S$3.6 billion) price tag.

"What you're seeing now is everything from scooters, which is the entry point... and then, of course, the development of smaller cars, bigger cars, and then, you know, eventually on to trucks and rail," he said.

"But it's very much in its infancy right now, so we don't play in any of those spaces right now. We have not made any comments on transport or haulage or trucking or trains or planes... That's really not our area of interest at all, even though a lot of the technology will be quite similar."

This was even as Bain, which estimated that the regional market for passenger electric cars will hit US$6 billion by 2030, has said that South-east Asian countries are likely to tap electric two-wheelers and public transit.

Meanwhile, Mr Rowan named competition as a key challenge for Dyson. But, when asked about the risk posed by rival electric automakers such as Elon Musk's Tesla, he held back on details of Dyson's market strategy.

"You need to be clear on what segment of the market you're going to go into, where the differentiation is going to take place," he said instead.

Dyson pledged last year to have its maiden electric car plant running here by 2021 - a target that Mr Rowan reiterated is "a reasonable time scale", given the technology involved. He added: "The marketplace itself is becoming more and more complex, obviously, as it develops as a much bigger piece of the automotive industry."

The British company, which has a campus in Wiltshire, revealed in January that it would shift its head office here. Mr Rowan, who has said that the move is not being done for tax breaks, asserted that "it made sense for us to have the epicentre of the business closest to" manufacturing operations and regional sales growth.

With Dyson products made entirely in South-east Asia - including motor parts in Singapore and final assembly in Malaysia and the Philippines - the supply chain has not been affected by events like the United States-China trade war or "Brexit", he added.

He said that Dyson's headcount here is set to grow, with a focus on software engineering and digital marketing. Also, Dyson will raise production at its Jurong motor plant, and take up more space at Science Park, where it now has a technology hub.

Mr Rowan was at the "Dyson Demo Store" - which showcases its line of hair-styling appliances - in CapitaLand's re-opened Funan mall.

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