Dreame debuts the world’s first rocket-powered electric car

Most people know Dreame for making the machines that are really good at picking Cheerios out of carpets. The Chinese company is a giant in the world of robot vacuums and high-tech floor cleaners. But the company showed up to an event in Silicon Valley with something much louder than a vacuum. At the DREAME NEXT event in San Francisco, the brand unveiled a wild concept vehicle that uses actual rocket boosters. This new machine, called the Nebula NEXT 01 JET Edition, wants to change how we think about fast electric cars.

The biggest headline for this concept is its speed. Dreame claims the car can go from 0 to 62 mph in just 0.9 seconds. Most high-end EVs take about two or three seconds to reach that speed. Reaching 62 mph in less than a second is usually reserved for fighter jets or professional drag racers. And while the car looks like a sleek four-door sedan, the rear end tells a different story.

That rear end holds a pair of custom solid-fuel rocket boosters. Dreame claims the system provides 100 kN of thrust. The rockets are designed to react almost instantly, firing off in just 150 milliseconds. This setup suggests that someone in the marketing department might have had a bit too much coffee before the meeting. Adding rockets to electric cars seems like a stunt, but the company uses this concept to show off its decade of work in robotics and artificial intelligence.

Under those flashy rocket engines, the Nebula NEXT 01 JET Edition carries some very serious technology. The car uses solid-state batteries with an energy density of over 450 Wh/kg. Dreame says these batteries are almost ready for regular production. For people who drive electric cars every day, this is actually more exciting than the rockets since better batteries mean longer trips and faster charging times.

The car also has a "drive-by-wire" system - there are no physical cables or rods connecting the steering wheel or brake pedal to the tires and brakes. Instead, everything happens through electrical signals. This "steer-by-wire" and "brake-by-wire" tech allows the car to react faster and saves space inside the frame.

Safety and self-driving features are another big part of this EV. Dreame introduced a new sensor called the DHX1 LiDAR. This device sits on the car, and it can see objects up to 1,969 ft away. Most sensors today struggle to see that far with great detail. Dreame claims their sensor can see clear shapes instead of just blurry outlines, helping the car with L2+ assisted driving, with L3 autonomy to follow soon.

Inside the cabin, the car feels less like a vehicle and more like a mobile office or a living room. Since Dreame makes home appliances, they turned the car into a smart-home hub. You can use the car's AI assistant to talk to your robot vacuum at home or check on your other gadgets. It is a "command center" on wheels.

Dreame plans to start building vehicles in 2027. The first model for the public will likely be the Nebula Next 01X, a high-performance sedan without the rocket engines. We should not expect to see rockets on the car heading to the nearest dealership. Those boosters are mostly to show what the company's engineers can do when they have a big budget and a wild imagination.

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