Meet Singapore’s first ever luxury hypercar, the Dendrobium, over 1,000 hp!



If you’ve ever come across the name Vanda Electrics, you should know now that the Singaporean tech giant is expanding their field of interests into the world of hypercar-dom.

It’s called the Dendrobium – Vanda Electrics Dendrobium. The name’s a mouthful and it’s odd-sounding at the same time, but it’s a pride thing because Dendrobium is a species of orchid native to Singapore. The hypercar will strictly be all-electric, with power coming from either three or four electric motors making for a combined output in excess of 1,000 horsepower.

This Dendrobium of a thing is no slouch by any measure. It is jointly developed with Williams Advanced Engineering, whose expertise in producing low-volume, high performing electric cars appealed greatly to Vanda Electrics. Apparently, the Dendrobium can sprint from 0 to 100 km/h in 2.6 seconds and has a minimum top speed of 320 km/h!

Two gearboxes will be commissioned for duty. The front axle will get a single-speed box with differential, while the rear will get a multi-speed gearbox and a differential as well. Both differentials will be of the conventional mechanical type, instead of software-based motor torque vectoring.

The pictures you see here are actually the working prototype of the hypercar. Its ideal weight would be 1,750kg, and getting there requires extensive use of carbon fibre. The monocoque is made of a rigid composite, the door panels out of carbon fibre and the brake discs are of carbon ceramic. A pair of 20-inch alloy wheels take the front axle while the rears get 21-inch hoops. All four are wrapped in high performance Michelin tyres.

If Tony Stark were to lay his eyes on the cabin, he would want this to be his next ride. There’s no rear view mirror, no rear windscreen and no side mirrors. In place of all those are high-res cameras. The bright red sports seats are wrapped in leather from Bridge of Weir, an exquisite Scottish leather company, which sources top quality hides from the best heritage breeds. The tannery is also state-of-the-art and produces the lowest amount of carbon – the perfect combo for Vanda Electrics’ zero emissions halo car.

But you know what else is most surprising? Vanda Electrics said early sketches of this electric hypercar dates back way into the 90s, but it took them this long to realise it because the design was “way ahead of its time”. They also needed the technology to catch up.

If the Dendrobium makes it to production, the first unit to hit the roads would be in 2020. To think this is all coming from our neighbouring country…


IMAGE GALLERY