Dyson has selected Singapore as the manufacturing centre for its first electric car.
It’s a significant move in a number of ways: Dyson doesn’t yet make automobiles; it will base production in a city where no automobile manufacturing plants currently exist; and Singapore has a population of only 6 million and isn’t much of a car market. But founder James Dyson’s comments - and the company’s product paths to date - could hint at the future of electric transport.
My first thought: labour costs don’t seem to matter that much to the company. Singapore is hardly cheap, and if the priority was to be in Asia but not China, then other countries in South East Asia would fit that bill.
My second thought: starting from a purely electric drivetrain puts the company’s “centre of gravity” (in James Dyson’s own words) on new supply chains. Chief executive Jim Rowan said in a note to staff that the Singapore decision is “based on supply chains” and that “the availability of the expertise” there will be helpful to the company. That expertise, though, isn’t automotive; it’s in batteries, electronics and motors (rather than engines). A moving supply chain doesn’t exempt the company from the various automotive woes” that Tesla’s Elon Musk is so fond of talking about - production and delivery are still crucial - but a purely electric platform does create new possibilities, just as it did years ago for Tesla.
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Read more:
BMW shifts into electric batteries and cost sharing on autonomous vehicles, exec says
Dyson steps up a gear with £2bn electric car production plan
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Listen:
Business Extra podcast: ADCB merger would shake up banking sector
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Lighter and more efficient systems like this are category creators. That combination of power in the battery and output in the motor allow the creation of a cordless vacuum. Improve them further, and that same system becomes a category killer: it kills off the incumbent offering - in this case, the corded vacuum models offered by the same company. It’s worth thinking about how this will play out in transportation. Which company will be the first to switch from making one or a few electric vehicle models (with two, three or four wheels) to making only electric vehicles?
Final thought: just like a vacuum, an electric car is in its own way a cleaner, too. Every electric vehicle on the road means one less source of street-level emissions. Electric vehicles are also, in their way, self-cleaning in a way that internal combustion engines aren’t. As the emissions intensity of power generation in an electricity grid falls, so do the emissions associated with charging an EV. Take Denmark, the UK and Finland and their declining carbon emissions from power generation: an electric vehicle plugged into the UK’s electricity grid in 2013 had twice as much carbon dioxide emissions per unit of electricity generated as it does today. Over four years, the same vehicle is responsible for half the emissions it once was, without the vehicle itself changing at all.
Electric vehicles get cleaner as power-sector emissions decline; cities get cleaner (and quieter) at street level, too.
Bloomberg
Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
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Blackpink World Tour [Born Pink] In Cinemas
Starring: Rose, Jisoo, Jennie, Lisa
Directors: Min Geun, Oh Yoon-Dong
Rating: 3/5
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
THE DETAILS
Director: Milan Jhaveri
Producer: Emmay Entertainment and T-Series
Cast: John Abraham, Manoj Bajpayee
Rating: 2/5
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Europe’s rearming plan
- Suspend strict budget rules to allow member countries to step up defence spending
- Create new "instrument" providing €150 billion of loans to member countries for defence investment
- Use the existing EU budget to direct more funds towards defence-related investment
- Engage the bloc's European Investment Bank to drop limits on lending to defence firms
- Create a savings and investments union to help companies access capital
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
A Bad Moms Christmas
Dir: John Lucas and Scott Moore
Starring: Mila Kunis, Kathryn Hahn, Kristen Bell, Susan Sarandon, Christine Baranski, Cheryl Hines
Two stars
LA LIGA FIXTURES
Thursday (All UAE kick-off times)
Sevilla v Real Betis (midnight)
Friday
Granada v Real Betis (9.30pm)
Valencia v Levante (midnight)
Saturday
Espanyol v Alaves (4pm)
Celta Vigo v Villarreal (7pm)
Leganes v Real Valladolid (9.30pm)
Mallorca v Barcelona (midnight)
Sunday
Atletic Bilbao v Atletico Madrid (4pm)
Real Madrid v Eibar (9.30pm)
Real Sociedad v Osasuna (midnight)
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
THE%20SPECS
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