Who on earth is encouraging YU Hao of Dreame to enter the automotive industry?
"Currently, no enterprise dares to claim that it has obtained the 'ticket'." "If you want to harm a buddy, you can persuade him to build cars." Recently, in Luo Yonghao's video podcast, He Xiaopeng playfully revealed the harsh reality in the car - building field.
Looking at the new - force camp, whether it's Li Auto, NIO, XPeng, Leapmotor, or those gradually exiting the market like WM Motor, HiPhi, Nezha, and Jiyue, each company has struggled to survive in the market waves.
Even so, there are still people plunging into the new - energy vehicle battlefield without hesitation.
The latest car - building player in the limelight is Dreame, a maker of sweeping robots.
The previous cross - border player similar to Dreame was Chang Jing, the boss of Roborock. The Jishi Auto founded by Chang Jing launched its first model, the Jishi 01, in August 2023, positioning it as an "all - terrain luxury SUV". Currently, it only has this one model on sale. In 2025, its monthly sales volume remained at over a thousand units, and many orders came from overseas. In the domestic market, it's almost unknown.
So, how will Dreame fare in car - building? Will it follow in Roborock's footsteps?
01 High - Profile, High - Profile, High - Profile
Dreame's foray into car - building goes beyond the scope of an ordinary cross - border move.
First, the goal is high - profile - aiming to rival Bugatti and compete with Li Auto.
According to reports, Dreame's automotive business consists of two major brands: Dreame Auto and Xingkong Auto. The former focuses on models that rival Bugatti, with both electric and extended - range versions; the latter invests in and incubates subsidiaries to produce models that rival the Rolls - Royce Cullinan and Bentley, "fully capable of competing with Li Auto".
In addition, some media reported that the Dreame Auto BU plans five major product lines: S/A/B/C/D, almost covering all automotive categories and price ranges.
On September 17th, Dreame Auto posted pictures of a concept car on Weibo. From the appearance to the performance parameters, it was quite eye - catching. It resembled a Bugatti in shape, with a double - butterfly door design. It claimed that the car would achieve a 0 - 100 km/h acceleration in less than 1.8 seconds and a drag coefficient as low as 0.185. Dreame aims to build the fastest car in the world.
After the Weibo post, doubts immediately emerged, such as "AI - rendered images" and "PPT car - building".
On September 24th, Dreame Auto released a teaser video for its second model, positioning it as a super - luxury flagship SUV. So far, in the high - end product layout, there are already two types of models: SUVs and coupes.
This SUV rivals the Rolls - Royce Cullinan, and the Cullinan's influence can be seen everywhere in the teaser video.
Some media reported that Dreame's car - building strategy is to "find a foreign ultra - luxury car and make it 'look similar but not identical'. It should have that kind of aura and spirit at first glance, but also have its own ideas in details to avoid looking like a blatant copy."
Judging from the current teasers of the two cars, this statement seems to be confirmed.
Second, the car - building path is unusual.
The official announcement of car - building stated that Dreame is building cars by standing on the shoulders of Chinese manufacturing giants. Countless Chinese enterprises have created the world's most mature electric - vehicle supply chain and technology ecosystem. Dreame doesn't want to be an adventurer starting from scratch.
However, Dreame Auto's first factory is located in Berlin, Germany. The planned area of the factory is about 1.2 times that of Tesla's Berlin Gigafactory. It is located close to Tesla's factory, aiming to use the local mature automotive industry chain resources to reduce logistics costs, shorten the R & D cycle, and enhance the local supply - chain coordination efficiency in the European market.
Third, the pace is aggressive.
From August 28th when Dreame officially announced its entry into car - building to the planned launch of the first mass - produced car in 2027, there is only a two - year interval. Yu Hao, the founder and CEO of Dreame, also said that the prototype car rivaling Bugatti will make its debut at the US CES show next year (usually held in January).
When we thought the time was already tight, on September 25th, Dreame Auto's first super - luxury flagship SUV made its debut at the Global Strategic Partners Conference, less than a month after the official announcement of car - building.
On the one hand, as the penetration rate of new - energy electric vehicles exceeds half, the industry competition is becoming more and more intense, and the window of opportunity for new entrants is closing. On the other hand, within less than two years, it will be possible to verify the viability of Dreame's car - building project, which actually increases the credibility of Dreame's car - building plan. However, the tight schedule is undoubtedly an extreme test of Dreame's execution ability.
02 Technology, Brand Power, and Money
Of course, the challenges for Dreame in car - building are not just about time. There are at least three other issues.
The first issue is technology.
In October 2024, Yu Hao posted on Weibo that in the era of artificial intelligence, there are far more commonalities between a sweeping robot and a car than it seems on the surface.
Dreame believes that in car - building, it can rely on its accumulation in high - speed digital motors, AI algorithms, and core technologies of robot sensing and control to achieve technology transfer in areas such as automotive electric drive systems, intelligent cockpits, and autonomous driving.
Generally speaking, there is a huge gap between the technical standards of consumer - grade products and vehicle - grade products. For example, sweeping robots mostly work indoors in a stable environment, while cars often have to withstand high - and low - temperature environments, bumpy roads, and other challenges. In terms of algorithms, sweeping robots are still at the stage where they are criticized for spreading spilled soy sauce evenly on the floor, while the fault - tolerance rate of intelligent driving is obviously much lower.
Besides Roborock, Dyson, an electrical appliance company, also wanted to build cars.
James Dyson, the founder of Dyson, has feared the black smoke emitted by gasoline cars since childhood. So, after mastering independent technologies such as batteries and engines, he started researching cars from scratch. Dyson regarded its research in the fields of motors, batteries, aerodynamics, vision systems, and robot technology as its technological advantages in car - building.
(Source: Dyson official website)
Dyson did build a car, which was benchmarked against Tesla in many parameters, not a top - luxury car. Compared with Tesla, Dyson's cost of 1.29 million yuan gave it no advantage. Eventually, Dyson judged that the car - building project was not commercially viable, and the project was terminated in 2019.
Some of the constraints that Dyson faced in car - building have seen significant improvements, such as "basic" technologies like machine learning and artificial intelligence. However, some constraints, such as commercialization, still remain for Dreame Auto.
The second issue is brand power.
The ultra - luxury car market is like an "aristocratic circle" with extremely high entry barriers. The entry ticket is a century - long brand history and an invaluable high - end image.
As a "newcomer", Dreame is hardly known in this circle. It will be an uphill battle for a brand with no story to tell and no reputation to rely on to convince top - tier consumers who seek identity recognition and inheritance value to make a purchase.
The last issue is money.
Li Bin of NIO said that one shouldn't even think about building cars without 40 billion yuan. Even though NIO has popular models and has a place in the new - energy electric vehicle market and in the minds of car owners, it still has to keep raising funds to survive. (For details, see "Raised another 7.1 billion! Why is NIO still short of money despite selling so many cars?")
There was a rumor that Xiaomi Auto, a rising star in the new - energy electric vehicle field, spent 10 billion yuan on car - building. If it were true, the capital threshold wouldn't be a problem.
Unfortunately, no one can escape the iron law of "burning money in car - building".
In response to the hot - topic of "building cars with 10 billion yuan", Lei Jun said, "This is really a misunderstanding. We have spent over 13 billion yuan on car R & D. With factory construction and the salaries of over 10,000 employees, as of the end of 2024, we have spent about 30 billion yuan in total."
Where will Dreame get its money?
Some reports said that in 2024, Dreame's revenue was about 15 billion yuan, and its revenue in the first half of this year exceeded that of the whole last year. Dreame has a certain foundation, but the funds accumulated through business operations in recent years are still far from enough for car - building.
Another way is financing. On September 12th, Dreame Auto completed its first - round financing, only two weeks after the official announcement of car - building. However, the specific amount was not disclosed.
In August last year, Dreame Technology announced the establishment of the Zhuichuang Robot Industry Venture Capital Fund, including a growth - stage strategic fund and an early - stage incubation fund. The growth - stage strategic fund has a scale of 10 billion yuan, and one of the key application scenarios it focuses on is intelligent vehicles, which may also be a source of funds for Dreame Auto.
Recently, a post on social media claimed that a private equity fund required employees to make follow - on investments and linked it to an elimination mechanism. The poster said that a certain "Mi Fund" "forced follow - on investments and linked them to an elimination mechanism, and used entrusted holding to bypass the qualification assessment?" Other pictures in the post all pointed to Dreame. Dreame responded that this was untrue.
Coupled with Dreame's focus on ultra - luxury cars, which have a small market capacity and it's difficult to reduce costs through economies of scale. This means that even with high prices and thick profits, it will take a long time to cover the initial investment. Whether the car - building business can be self - sustaining requires a long verification period.
03 Yu Hao Wants to Be Lei Jun + Elon Musk
Another factor influencing Dreame's investment in the automotive field is the ambition of the "People, Cars, Homes, and the Universe" strategy.
The "People, Cars, Homes, and the Universe" strategy has one more dimension than the "People, Cars, and Homes" ecosystems of companies like Xiaomi, Haier, and Midea. How is Dreame performing in each line of its multi - front operations?
Regarding its core business of cleaning appliances, multiple media reported that Yu Hao said in an internal speech that "Dreame has left behind companies like Ecovacs, Yunjing, and Roborock, and they are no longer in the same league as Dreame."
According to IDC data, in the first half of 2025, the global smart home cleaning robot market (including sweeping robots, lawn mowing robots, pool robots, window - cleaning robots, and air - purifying robots) shipped 15.352 million units, a year - on - year increase of 33%. Dreame's market share was 10.2%, ranking third, behind Roborock (15.2%) and Ecovacs (13.7%).
Neither Roborock nor Ecovacs had revenues of over 9 billion yuan in the first half of 2025. According to the previous reports, Dreame's revenue in the first half of 2025 had exceeded 15 billion yuan. This shows that although Dreame's sales volume is 30% - 50% lower than that of Roborock and Ecovacs, its revenue is 70% - 90% higher, which means its unit price is more than twice that of Roborock and Ecovacs.
Although the average product price can be affected by product structure and sales market, the difference in average product price is still a bit hard to believe.
The latest news about Dreame's mobile phone business is that on September 19th, it announced that it would soon launch its first smartphone, the Dreame Space, claiming that it has already received over 100 million yuan in pre - orders in the overseas market. The mobile phone follows a high - end route and aims to compete with Xiaomi and Huawei in the future.
Dreame's mobile phone business is also quite thought - provoking. Competing with Huawei and Xiaomi clearly refers to the domestic market. If it's the global market, Samsung and Apple shouldn't be ignored. And the fact that the 100 - million - yuan orders come from overseas is rather puzzling.
For the "People, Cars, and Homes" ecosystem strategy, Xiaomi restarted chip - building and started car - building. These two decisions, made almost simultaneously, made Xiaomi bet all its previous decades' savings. Lei Jun admitted that "it's like sending two children to college at the same time. The pressure was huge. Looking back now, I still wonder where I got the courage."
However, Dreame, which has far less resources than Xiaomi, has even grander plans.
On September 10th, Dreame Technology announced the establishment of the Astronomy Business BU (an independently operated business unit within the company), which will focus on intelligent astronomical optical systems. It is working on solving the problem of mass - producing large - aperture optical lenses. The first intelligent astronomical telescope may adopt a super - large - aperture design, capable of functions such as "one - click stargazing", AI automatic compensation for atmospheric jitter, and intelligent identification and tracking of deep - space celestial bodies.
On September 25th, Dreame also mentioned that it will explore asteroid exploration and mining business, stating that "while Elon Musk is obsessed with colonizing Mars, Dreame is more concerned with asteroids. Asteroids pose a threat to the Earth's survival, while Mars doesn't; asteroids have untapped mineral resources, while Mars doesn't."
From Jia Yueting's Faraday Future to Xu Jiayin's Hengchi Auto, there has never been a shortage of grand ideas in the history of technology. Whether a car can be built is one thing, and whether it can become a viable business is another.
From Chunlan Air - Conditioner, the former air - conditioner giant that over - diversified beyond its core business, to LeEco with its "ecological synergy", there has never been a shortage of grand - narrative constructors in business history. However, "telling stories" and "doing real business" are not the same thing.
This article is from the WeChat official account "Market Value List" (ID: shizhibang2021), author: Jia Lele, editor: Zhao Yuan, published by 36Kr with permission.