“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:
[…]
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:
- Brake by wire
- Ditches hydraulic fluid brakes
- Fully dry EMV brakes
- Battery: 550km range
- Solid state battery
- 450Wh/kg. Goal: 800Wh/kg
- “Metis” AI agent for each vehicle
- AI works with all other Dreame devices at your home
- 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.
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
Hilarious. Those nozzles look like the sort of things a kid draws – a mishmash of a bunch of different technologies they don’t understand but that look badass. Those nozzles are not from a rocket, but from a jet engine. They’ve got variable-geometry “turkey feathers” that suggest afterburners as well as the tailcone that is typically part of the turbine assembly – as opposed to an actual rocket that is just a plain nozzle with no central suspended assembly.
Ha, I was thinking the same thing! Just like the jet engine in the 1989 Batmobile, that Bats somehow sits in the middle of.
…and shields that come out of nowhere
When I saw that picture, I commented in the Autopian Slack that I haven’t seen “rockets” that fake since I last saw a Batmobile prop car.
I may be late to the game (wish I hadn’t set this article to read later, but at least I got some things done today), but those look like Phillips and Oral-B toothbrushes set into fancy skins. I’ve used 2 Phillips units over the past 12 years, and would recommend them. No experience with the Oral-B.
Also, looking at the other products, this looks like a company that has software people for their “user customization experience” and enough hardware people (or at least contractors) to add connectivity to things— and they are going to China, looking at products and picking a out some to lifestyle-ify them, while ordering aethetic upgrades (mostly silver color) to the original products. Kind of like an entrepreneurial marketing team with money behind them, and some design and manufacturing people to realize the (good or bad) ideas.
This will pair well w/ my Fuel Shark!
Welp, at least it was a beautiful sunny day at the ol’ PPIE site so getting out and about was nice…
EV? If you add rockets to a car then that’s a hybrid.
100kn of thrust equals total bullshit. That’s enough to send these things into a Mark Webber at Le Mans situation.
https://youtube.com/shorts/SSROJuW82o0?si=FeDrSo6mRJzKA3d5
So, let’s check some math
I figure the car accelerates at about 3.2g. The force of 100 kN calculates that that would accelerate around 7,200 lbs at 3.2g.
Unless my math is wrong, that seems way too heavy for that car. Maybe because the entire thing is made out of cattle manure.
Only from the intact males.
Solid rocket motor?!?! The whole point with a solid rocket motor is that it doesn’t like to go out until you’ve burned all the fuel, which seems like a pretty bad idea for a car on a road.
Thems must be some brakes!
Why are people talking about this as if it’s remotely possible or desirable, as if the tech just needs a few tweaks? Yeah lets mount high-powered flame throwers on the back of cars to incinerate what or whoever is behind them at the red light.
This car reminds me of the ads for the ‘USB Plasma Lighter’ that keep claiming they are 100% electric—no butane needed!—while showing a clearly gas-fueled flame from said lighter.
I actually had one of those (maybe different than what you saw) and it did work well for a little while on only battery power, no butane, until it died and never sparked again.
I mean, Tesla has been teasing an EV with ‘rockets’ for how many years? Can’t let them have all the fun!
Solid Rocket Boosters on a car, what could go wrong? Reminds me of the urban legend of the guy who strapped a JATO rocket on his Malibu.
Those are the nozzles that release the bullshit this car is built from.
Math says PR stunt based on that design – using averages, but you get the gist.
Average rocket combustion temperature is between approx. 2,200°C to 3,200°C on the lower end. In non-inert environments – aka on Earth – carbon fiber begins to burn at around 400°C to 500°C, and more than likely, the resin itself melts sooner at 200°C to 300°C — While the carbon fiber is not in the direct path of the stream output, it’s so close that temps will easily exceed that in the immediate vicinity and that carbon is HUGGING the chamber nearly all the way to the output point…
Live demo or never worked imo. Maybe they managed to insulate the chamber to control temperature, but lexical physics would probably fisticuffs them out back on that one with this design.
But can you pre-order using CRYPTO!?!?
Or cryptid.
Please… just give us an EV with good steering feel
Rest assured that the fixed, unidirectional thrust rockets will not do that.
Well, I’m obviously all-in for one of these babies! Quick question – how are those rockets going to do on the emissions test? Probably just burn down the Jiffy Lube and cook a few techs.
China companies insisting on never hiring a native English speaker to develop their marketing always makes me laugh.
On that rocket slide, none of those sentences make any sense whatsoever.
wut?
AI knows English speaking with quadruple redundancy and <50ms trigger delay. All systems go.
… or something.
Tesla has been promising rockets on the roadster for a while now.
https://www.theautopian.com/the-tesla-roadster-getting-to-60-in-one-second-with-rockets-may-be-possible-but-what-the-hell-will-you-do-with-it/