If you were getting excited about the Bugatti-copy electric hypercar from upstart Chinese automaker Dreame, we’re about to suck the wind from your sails. The automaker has gone through one of the quickest rise and fall cycles of any car company we’ve ever seen.
Instead of building a crazy hypercar, Dreame is going back to what it blows at… in a good way: vacuums and home appliances.
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Dreame NebulaDreame
Dreame Technology has reportedly closed its automotive endeavor, called the Starry Sky project. The company is liquidating the assets, CarNewsChina reports, marking the end of the carbuilding effort after less than one year.
According to the report, layoffs started in May. Now, the company’s workforce has fallen from 1,000 to closer to a dozen. The remaining staff are taking care of the final steps, winding down operations ahead of the full closure.
The first Dreame car sighting was last August. The automaker showed a four-door hypercar that had more than a passing resemblance to the Bugatti Chiron. It was targeting the Chiron’s performance, too. A version of the car that debuted at CES in January 2026 made an alleged 1,876 horsepower from its four motors, and could do zero to 62 mph in 0.9 second. Yes, less than one second, thanks to help from an honest-to-goodness rocket engine that showed up later as the Jet Edition.
It wasn’t all supercars and rocket ships, though. The short-lived automaker also revealed an SUV that looked a bit like the Rolls-Royce Cullinan. Dreame planned to build the two EVs in Germany, giving it better access to the EU and US markets than a Chinese-built model would have.
Dreame also introduced models under the name Kosmera. The Kosmera Star Matrix had a Bugatti-style nose but its own side profile and surfacing, while the Star Razer had a unique nose but a Bugatti-like side profile. Except that both had four seats and those beefy electric motors.
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Dreame SUV from the front three-quarter angleDreame Technology / Weibo
The company is better known for its vacuums, including robot vacuums, as well as yard care electronics, air care, and hair stylers. It seems like a stretch, but Dreame isn’t the only such company that wanted to take a shot at making cars.
Normally, this is where we’d say that Dyson walked so Dreame could run, but the electric car efforts of both companies crashed and burned. It turns out that small but powerful motors that run on small batteries or household wall power are very different from the big, high-voltage motors that go in a car.
CarNewsChina reports that the automaker faced regulatory scrutiny over its use of funds. This affected how it could spend government grant money, which likely hurt the project. CEO Yu Hao had started the car company as one of several growth incubators, but is now focusing on the company’s core products.
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Dreame Technologies HypercarHao Yu/WeChat
Building cars is hard, even if you try to copy someone else’s homework. That’s a lesson company after company and innovator after innovator spend billions to learn. A 150,000-rpm digital motor for a hair dryer is great, but you’re going to need much, much more to turn it into a successful car company.
That’s not going to stop anyone from trying, though. As long as they can convince investors, there will be new car startups.
Source: CarNewsChina
