Singapore Officially Unveils Electric Super Car

By Massita Ahmad SINGAPORE, March 9 (Bernama) -- Singapore on Thursday officially unveiled its technologically ambitious electric supercar - Vanda Dendrobium - at the Geneva Motor Show. According to CAR magazine.co.UK, it had a sneak preview of 'Vanda Dendrobium' at Williams Advanced Engineering in the United Kingdom, the consultancy offshoot of the F1 team. It is tasked with engineering and building the show car on behalf of its creators, Vanda Electrics, a Singapore-based firm incorporated in 2016, which hasn't built a car before, nor does it plan to become a volume automotive manufacturer. The closest thing to a series production vehicle in its current portfolio is the rather beguiling little Motochimp electric scooter, which goes on sale in Japan in summer 2017, and the Ant Truck, a square-cut one-tonne EV load-lugger heading for production before 2018, the magazine said. The website said Vanda Dendrobium was intended as a halo project, to build interest and awareness in the brand. A second car may follow, should the Dendrobium be successful, it said. "We are still deciding whether to put the car into production fully," Vanda Electric Chief Executive Officer Larissa Tan was quoted as saying in the website. "The plan is to do so, but reaction at Geneva will be key. If it does, it will be made in the tens rather than the hundreds." The website said should Vanda Dendrobium make the jump into production, Williams Advanced Engineering would again most likely be the construction partner. On the potential price of producing the car, CAR wrote "we can expect a production version to carry 'a seven-figure price tag'. Dendrobium is a species of orchid native to Singapore whereby much of the concept's design is inspired by nature, with honeycomb patterns a recurring theme, said the website. If the Vanda Dendrobium does go on sale, when will it reach the road, Tan reportedly said:"We were waiting for technology to catch up with the design, for the time to be right. We decided now that the time is right to realise it." The car's essential design had existed as a concept project since the mid 1990s and was always intended to be an electric vehicle although the project was revisited again in the mid-2000s. The website said Williams Advanced Engineering received the initial sketches from Vanda Electrics in December 2015, and started work early the following year. -- BERNAMA