0–60 in Under a Second? Dreame’s Rocket-Powered EV Sounds Like a Sci-Fi Dream

There’s a fine line between ambitious and implausible, and Dreame’s latest project VE the concept doesn’t so much follow this line as clearly launch into it.

Unveiled Monday at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, the Nebula Next 01 Jet Edition arrives with an absurd claim that’s hard to ignore and even harder to take literally: a sub-second sprint to 62 mph, achieved not just through electric propulsion, but with the help of solid-state rocket boosters.

It’s the kind of speech designed to make everyone stop and take notice – and to be fair, that’s what happened – but once the initial shock wears off, the questions start to pile up quickly.

Dreame, a Chinese company best known in the United States for its excellent robot vacuum cleanersis the force behind the Nebula automotive branch. This pivot alone might raise eyebrows, but it’s not unprecedented. Dyson explored build an electric vehicle before abandoning the effort in 2019, and the current landscape is much more lenient toward non-traditional entrants. Companies such as Xiaomi have already proven that consumer tech brands can make the leap, at least in China’s domestic market.

What is less proven is whether these companies can bend the laws of physics.

Watch this: Check out Dreame Tech’s rocket-powered concept car

01:40

The Jet Edition builds on the already ambitious Next 01 concept presented earlier this year at CES 2026a four-motor electric sedan with 1,876 horsepower (1,399 kilowatts) and a 0-62 mph time of about 1.8 seconds. That figure alone would put it firmly in hypercar territory. For context, the Bugatti Chirona benchmark for extreme acceleration, manages the same sprint in around 2.4 seconds.

Nebula’s engineers were not satisfied. According to the company, it ran headlong into a familiar constraint: traction. There’s only so much acceleration four tires can deliver before grip gives way, no matter how much power you throw at them. Rather than circumvent this limitation, Nebula claims to have chosen to circumvent it entirely by adding thrust. Hence the rockets.

The company claims the Jet Edition can hit 60 mph in 0.9 seconds thanks to a pair of chassis-mounted solid-state rocket boosters. That’s a figure that, if accurate, would put it in a realm typically reserved for specialized drag racing machines, not road-going vehicles. And this is where skepticism becomes inevitable.

Solid-state rockets are, by design, expendable. They burn their fuel in a single use, which immediately raises questions of practicality. How often can this system be used? What does refueling look like, assuming it’s even possible outside of controlled environments? What does it cost? None of these details were discussed.

Then there is the question of safety and legality. A vehicle capable of producing thousands of pounds of thrust – and, presumably, visible exhaust flames – would face enormous regulatory hurdles in virtually every market. Even putting certification aside, it is difficult to imagine how such a system could coexist with everyday road users without introducing significant risks.

Notably, none of this has been demonstrated live. The Jet Edition remained stationary throughout the presentation, its rocket system limited to promotional images and on-stage statements.

Beyond the headline-grabbing propulsion system, Dreame laid out a broader vision for the Next 01 platform, one that leans heavily on electromechanical design and solid-state battery technology. The company described a “robotics-based” chassis featuring dry electromechanical brakes in place of traditional hydraulics, as well as an active suspension system using magnetic actuators.

These ideas don’t come entirely out of left field. The industry is gradually moving towards electric braking systems and more software-defined vehicle dynamics. But as with rocket boosters, much of this exists here as theory rather than demonstrated capability.

The same goes for the vehicle’s AI architecture. Dreame positions its SEWE AI agent as a high-performance “brain” responsible for everything from autonomous driving to cybersecurity to what it calls “emotional intelligence” – a system designed to learn driver behavior and act as a companion of sorts. It’s an expansive, buzzword-heavy speech, but at the event the only visible manifestation of that intelligence was the AI-generated video reels for the Next 01 and 01 Jet Edition. I wasn’t able to look inside the booth and the software wasn’t demonstrated live.

If there was one truly compelling piece of technology in the room, it wasn’t the rockets. It was lidar. Dreame Technology’s DHX1 sensor is touted as the world’s first color lidar system, capable of capturing RGB color data as well as point-mapped depth information. On paper, the specifications are solid: 4K resolution, 4,320 channels and a detection range of up to 600 meters, with the ability to detect poorly reflective objects at 400 meters. More importantly, integrating color into 3D point clouds could reduce the need for separate camera systems, potentially simplifying vehicle perception for autonomous and assisted driving systems and reducing computational overhead.

This is a development that has clear and real implications and seems much more in line with the actual direction of the industry and the company’s demonstrated strengths.

Dreame says production of the Next 01 range, including an 01X SUV variant and the Jet Edition, could begin in China as early as late 2026, reaching customers in 2027. Whether any of these vehicles will make it past concept form remains to be seen. Bringing them to the United States would be even more complicated, given increasing regulatory scrutiny of Chinese automakers and broader geopolitical tensions around the auto industry.

Additionally, the young automaker didn’t say anything about pricing. The 01 and 01X would be offered in two-, three-, and four-motor configurations, but with such a level of technology and claimed performance, they probably wouldn’t come cheap.

For now, the Jet Edition feels less like a glimpse into the future and more like an exercise in science fiction and the attention economy – a way to stand out in a crowded EV landscape by making claims big enough that they can’t be ignored. Mission accomplished on that front.