Vacuum cleaner behemoth Dyson has unveiled soaring profits despite taking a hit of almost £200m after it abandoned plans to build an electric car.

The company posted a 17pc rise in profit in 2019, the same year its headquarters were shifted from Wiltshire to Singapore by Brexit-backing billionaire founder Sir James Dyson.

Dyson made a net income of £711m, it said in filings in Singapore, while revenue rose 23pc to £5.4bn.

The company shrugged off a £198m blow from discontinued operations, including giving up on a dream of developing electric cars.

Last October it discarded plans to spend around £2bn on the new vehicles, having collected 400 engineers to work on the project at an abandoned British Air Force base.

Dyson has now switched its focus to machine learning and robotics, among other technologies, pledging to invest £2.75bn over five years. The money will be used to fund research on robots, next generation motor technology, smart products, machine learning and material science.

The investments will be spread across Dyson’s operations in Singapore, the UK and Philippines, with the aim of doubling its range of products by 2025.

In January 2019 the engineering firm announced it was moving its headquarters to Singapore, amid a push for future expansion in Southeast Asia. Dyson has run a technology centre in the Asian city state for 12 years.

The firm is due to take over a 110,000 sq ft historic Singaporean power station next year as its main office. Dyson stopped manufacturing in the UK in 2003 and most of its products are made in the East.

Bosses have previously vowed to hire more than 2,000 people in Southeast Asia over the coming years, but in July the firm said it will cut 900 of its 14,000 jobs around the world due to the pandemic.

It is also opening a new manufacturing hub and starting a university program targeted at product development.