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Dendrobium hypercar teased: WTF is a Dendrobium?

Dendrobium: a genus of orchid native to Singapore. That answers that. But what does this new shapely hypercar have to do with that? Well, like the flower, the Dendrobium hypercar is native to Singapore, and it's the nation-state's first attempt at building such a vehicle.


The new electric hypercar developed by a company called Vanda Electrics will make its international debut at the 2017 Geneva motor show in March, with the two-seater borrowing some technical knowhow from the team at Williams Advanced Engineering.

Williams Advanced Engineering is associated with Williams Martini Racing (the team behind some of the greatest formula one cars) and the vehicle is said to rely on the technical expertise of the company for its aerodynamics packaging, composite materials, batteries and electric drivetrains.

Just what form that electric drivetrain will take remains to be seen, because the company hasn't revealed its outputs or the layout of the powertrain. We'd expect, though, that it would need to have more than 500kW of power to be considered a part of the hypercar realm.

Back to the name: the company claims the Dendrobium's doors and roof can be opened electrically in a "synchronised, theatrical manner, resembling a fully-opened dendrobium flower, a genus of orchids native to Singapore".

On the inside the eco-focus is maintained, with the car apparently featuring materials sourced from a Scottish company called Bridge of Weir Leather Company, claimed to be the lowest carbon leather product in the world.

Never heard of Vanda Electrics? Nor had we, but the company has the global strategy "to revolutionise zero emissions vehicles", and has already developed the Ant Truck (an electric one-tonne truck with 100 kilometres of range and a 40km/h top speed) and the very cute Moto Chimp e-scooter (60km range, gosh-darn gorgeous retro looks).

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