We Sent An Engineer To Check Out A Chinese Household-Appliance Company’s EV Rocket Car That Promises 0-60 in 0.9 Seconds. Here’s What He Found

“RSVP: A New Benchmark in EV Performance + Autonomy” was the subject of the email from the Chinese household-appliance company, Dreame. In the email was a photo promising absolutely ludicrous performance — 0 to 100 km/h in 0.9 seconds.

“That’s impossible unless this is a rocket car,” I thought. Well, it turns out… it’s a rocket car. But also possibly a bullshit car that will never come to market or, at least, never come to the United States. We sent an engineer to check it out.

Here’s some of the email The Autopian received from the team handling comms for Dreame, an appliance company that sells fancy (and from what I’ve heard, decent) hairdryers and vacuums and air purifiers at the well-known Century City Mall in Los Angeles, among other places:

On April 27 in San Francisco, Dreame, a brand known for its smart home appliances, will flip the script and unveil a new high-performance concept vehicle that pushes beyond conventional EV and autonomy benchmarks – both in acceleration and sensing capabilities.

We’re keeping full details under embargo until the event, but at a high level, the vehicle introduces:

• A next-generation perception system designed to move beyond today’s LiDAR limitations
• A new approach to vehicle performance architecture, achieving acceleration figures that are… not typical of production EVs
• An integrated autonomy platform built for full-scenario driving, from urban navigation to advanced driverless capabilities
• The session will also feature Sebastian Thrun, offering perspective on where mobility is heading next.

[…]

Attending media will also have the opportunity to connect on-site with Steve Wozniak and Dwyane Wade, who will be participating in additional sessions.

Hot damn. The Woz is going to be there! And Dwyane Wade, GOAT-James’ sidekick from his Miami heat days. Very cool.

As the invitation was last minute at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, we decided to send an engineer-reader. He’s currently at the event checking out the “Nebula NEXT 01 JET Edition,” which is presumably named for the jet of combustion gases coming from the rocket engines in the rear.

Here are some initial photos from our enginerd on the ground:     

The thing looks snazzy! And given that China is way ahead of the U.S. when it comes to electric cars, you’d think this could be legit! Let’s check out the rockets in the back:

Hot diggidy dog! That explains the claimed 0-100km/h time of 0.9 seconds.

Our enginerd sent me some notes from the event:

1. Brake by wire
2. Ditches hydraulic fluid brakes
3. Fully dry EMV brakes
4. Battery: 550km range
5. Solid state battery
6. 450Wh/kg. Goal: 800Wh/kg
7. “Metis” AI agent for each vehicle
8. AI works with all other Dreame devices at your home
9. Announced release of DHX1 LiDAR system

“This is much more about the AI interface than the vehicle itself. The proposed AI tech really is impressive (immersive — Each car will learn about its owner, including driving habits, routes, stops, it will intercept will all the Dreame suite they have in their home), but I doubt this car ever sees production in this form,” he told me, before showing me a green car, the Nebula Next 01, which was shown at CES this January.

“Green one has full interior, Red one (rocket car) has black Lexan windows,” our Ti-89-toting foot-soldier told us in Slack. “Door handles are present.”

“VERY interesting that with all the AI they talked about, the rear wing is fixed,” he said before our intrepid bullshit-detector got kicked off the stage.

As for those rockets, he’s not feeling it. “These influencers,” our man sighed. “’The world’s first production concept car with rockets’ … wut. Nope. I can’t see anything that gives me the fizz. Not even logos on the calipers. These could easily be in the next F&F movie and then become peg warmer Hot Wheels at your local Walmart. Like … why put a carbon fiber surround on a rocket exhaust?”

“There are no gaps around the rockets. Everything has been blocked by plastic covers. Feels like horseshit … there are no air inlets, no air outlets, all grilles are decorative and are blocked off, red car has the rockets, and they have carbon fiber cases? No mention of fueling, cool down, etc. It doesn’t look to me like they’re real rockets, just that they’re fab’d to look like rockets … They’re saying they’re functional, but it’s hard to see how that’s possible given the presentation here.”

Then there’s the ride height.

“They said it has electromechanical suspension. Why wouldn’t they lower it for a more aggressive look? Another feather in the BS hat.”

I could go either way on the ride height; I don’t think it looks too bad.

Our frustrated engineer wanted more details, because that’s what engineers do. “They just went ‘it has two rockets that produce 100kN of thrust and propel the car to 100kph in 0.9s’ then nothing more about it. But TONS more info about the AI interface, lidar set up, etc … No mention of the motor specs, rocket specs, handling specs… the things that a certain subset of every automotive enthusiast cares about.”

There is this slide, for what it’s worth:

Our engineer says the car feels like a “red herring to get eyes on Dreame’s 3-day tech expo.” And that’s honestly kind of the vibe I got from the press release (see below), which is why I didn’t send any of our regular staffers, but rather someone local.

That’s really this event in a nutshell. Dreame wants to show off its tech and get people talking about them, so they’ve got Steve Wozniak, Dwyane Wade, and all sorts of other celebs and influences and members of the media attending this three-day event, which is more about their AI capabilities and their core products than about the cars — core products like robotic pool cleaners, robotic lawn mowers, personal care air conditioner, wet dry vacuum, home vacuums, robot laundry, refrigerator, window cleaning robot, home environmental appliances, a “BIG ASS TV” (per our engineer), a fitness ring, a watch, smart glasses, phones, and more.

Anyway, it does look like a fun time, and it looks like Dreame spared no expense.

Looks like an impressive venue, impressive names, and impressive AI-appliance plans, even if the new “Nebula NEXT 01 JET Edition” wasn’t particularly impressive, especially to an engineer asked to figure out how production-feasible the car is.

[Ed note: Those are nice-looking toothbrushes. I kinda wanna test drive one of those – MH]

But hey, even if our enginerd isn’t feeling the car, what was his first press event like?

 “The presentations are very nice and well thought out. I wouldn’t call it fancy, but purposeful,” he said…it was memorable for sure.”

What do I think? Well, I’ve attended a Faraday Future event, so I know what substanceless hype is, but Dreame is a real company, and Car News China makes it seem like there’s potential, writing:

On April 23, Dreame officials shared that they entered into a cooperation with the University of California, Berkley. It is a top-ranked public research university with a story dating back to 1868. The two sides will join their research resources to accelerate the development of AI-based vehicle autonomous control systems. Dreame has a long-term goal of creating an AI that is capable of controlling the entire car from perception and decision-making to chassis and powertrain.

[…]

On March 12, Dreame also revealed the Nebula Next 01X crossover with electromagnetic suspension and a range-extended powertrain option. Other features are two chips with a peak computing power of 2,000 TOPS and electric mechanical braking (EMB). It was said to begin mass production in 2027.

China is at the cutting edge of EV development, so even if these two concepts were just design-bucks, there’s a possibility that Dreame could either build them or simply use them to showcase tech they’ll sell to someone else.

Or they’re just complete vaporware there to get people talking about the brand. Who the heck knows.

All photos: The Autopian