Next year will mark the 10th anniversary of the second-generation Tesla Roadster’s reveal in prototype form, and there’s still no sign of a production model yet.
The new Tesla Roadster has been delayed at least eight times since its initial unveiling in 2017, with the latest estimates suggesting a production start in 2027 or 2028. Given that time frame, there’s a high chance a surprise Chinese electric supercar equipped with rocket boosters will beat the Roadster—including its optional SpaceX package featuring 10 cold-gas thrusters—to market.
We’re talking about the Nebula Next 01 Jet Edition, a bonkers electric four-door supercar project coming from the most unlikely of manufacturers—Chinese robot vacuum maker Dreame Technology (which also makes a bunch of other smart home appliances).
The Rocket-Boosted Electric Supercar That Came Out of Nowhere
Unveiled yesterday at the Dreame Next event San Francisco, the Nebula Next 01 Jet Edition is a rocket-powered electric vehicle featuring a custom-built dual solid-fuel rocket booster system that gives it otherworldly performance—at least on paper.
Dreame Technology claims a neck-snapping 0-62 mph time of 0.9 seconds, which is unprecedented for a production vehicle. Not even the world’s quickest EV, the 2,200-hp Ford Mustang Cobra Jet 2200, can come close, as the electric dragster goes from 0 to 60 mph in 1.66 seconds.
Dreame says in a press release that the Nebula Next 01 Jet Edition’s rocket booster system responds in 150 milliseconds and generates a peak thrust of 100 kN—the equivalent of 22,480 pounds pushing down due to gravity.
No other powertrain or performance specs were disclosed, but Dreame did say the vehicle uses a CTP 4.0 (cell-to-pack) battery integration technology, which removes the traditional crossbeams and longitudinal beams from the battery pack to free up vertical space in the chassis. The company also said the car includes an ultra-high-definition DHX1 LiDAR unit for advanced driving assist features.
Vaporware or the Real Deal?
Dreame Technology
The Jet Edition appears to be based on the Dreame Nebula 1 electric supercar concept that debuted earlier this year at CES. That vehicle allegedly has a total of 1,876 horsepower from four electric motors and is capable of sprinting from 0 to 62 mph in 1.8 seconds.
Before dismissing the Nebula as vaporware, Dreame claims it has been working on its first car project for more than a decade, with the Nebula Next 01 Jet Edition pitched as a statement of its engineering. Dreame says that its decision to build vehicles “came only after the company had accumulated sufficient depth in technology, organization, capital, and global capability.”
Dreame Technology
So, what’s next? Last year, Dreame announced plans to build a factory outside Berlin, Germany, not far from Tesla’s Gigafactory Berlin; it hasn’t provided an update on the status of the plant project since. The company says it aims to start production of the Nebula Next 01 Jet Edition there in 2027, which is an insane timeline until you realize Chinese companies operate at a completely different speed than their western counterparts.
The Autopian sent an engineer at the reveal of the Nebula Next 01 Jet Edition concept and he wasn’t very impressed, noting that the two rockets at the rear have no gaps around them and “everything has been blocked by plastic covers.” Plus, the vehicle has no air inlets and outlets, and the grilles are decorative and blocked off. His conclusion was that those aren’t actual rockets, they’re just made to look like the real thing.
Of course, there’s also the possibility that the vehicle is just a design buck showcased for illustration purposes only, and a functional prototype exists somewhere. We’ll see if that’s the case if we ever hear about this rocked-powered EV supercar again.
Dreame Technology