BREXIT

Dyson will head for Singapore to build electric car factory

Sir James Dyson’s latest project had already received £16 million in taxpayer support
Sir James Dyson’s latest project had already received £16 million in taxpayer support
CHRIS J RATCLIFFE FOR THE TIMES

Sir James Dyson, the multibillionaire Brexiteer and inventor, has decided to make his new electric cars in Singapore in a rebuff to the prime minister’s industrial strategy.

Dyson confirmed that it is to go into electric car production and hopes to have zero-emission vehicles on the road by 2021. Though development of the vehicles has received at least £16 million in taxpayer support, the cars will be built at a yet-to-be-constructed base in southeast Asia.

The news is a blow to the automotive industry, already troubled by Brexit uncertainties. Theresa May and Greg Clark, her business secretary, had vowed in their industrial strategy white paper to put Britain at the heart of the global automotive industry’s move toward electrification. Nissan and Toyota of Japan, BMW