Would you buy a car from Harvey Norman? New Chinese brand Dreame confirmed for Austraia, and it will be very different to BYD, Geely and Zeekr
Australia’s fast-growing horde of Chinese EV newcomers is set to expand again, with home electronics company Dreame detailing its plans to enter the local market with an AI-driven approach to EVs.
The brand, which is better known globally and across Australia for producing robot vacuums and smart-home products, is a new giant in China’s electronics industry. READ MORE:
It is now turning its attention to cars, and says arriving late to the automotive space will actually prove its biggest advantage, allowing it to differentiate its vehicles in an increasingly crowded segment.
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Dreame Chief Marketing Officer Mr Ma believes that existing EVs are increasingly becoming indistinguishable from one another, insisting that products from major brands like BYD and Tesla are “getting commoditised”.
He said the company’s strategy is to focus less on traditional comparisons and more on integrated technology experiences driven by advances in artificial intelligence (AI).
“The products today, from BYD, from Tesla, from all the major brands, are getting commoditised,” says Mr Ma.
“So everyone’s trying to get bigger, trying to squeeze more screens, more battery power inside the car. And that’s why, as a latecomer, we’re not trying to compete on commoditised products.
“That’s why one of the biggest competitive propositions for us is the ecosystem.”
Central to that plan is an AI-driven ownership experience linking vehicles with customers’ other devices and appliances, allowing the car to trigger household appliances (like the brand’s robotic vacuum cleaners and lawn mowers) automatically before you arrive home. .
Mr Ma also suggested the shift to AI created a “window of opportunity” for Dreame, in much the same way that electrification opened the door to the rise and rise of Chinese automakers around 10 years ago.
“Let’s turn the clock back to 10 years ago. We were thinking that there’s no way for BYD or Tesla or some of the newer Chinese brands to have a market share in China. Because domestic brands or foreign brands like Mercedes, Audi, they’re already dominating the market. But (then) there’s a shift from gasoline to electric vehicles. That creates the window of opportunity for new players,” he says.
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“Right now we’re standing at a time where AI is creating a new time window for newer players. So that’s why I think our vision, and also the window of opportunity, make it essential for us to come into the market.”
The one thing we don’t know about, though, is the vehicles themselves. Dreame currently has no approved manufacturing facilities in China or abroad (though it says it is working on it), and is yet to release any details of the mid-size SUV that it will reveal this year and launch in Australia in 2027.
The striking vehicles you see in this story are actually concepts from a Dreame sub-brand, Nebula, which will arrive further down the track, and likely be powered by a solid-state battery currently being developed in-house, and which the brand says will be ready for mass-production in 2027.
But the SUV (in fact, there will likely be three vehicles at launch; a small SUV, medium SUV and a passenger vehicle) will be far more mainstream, designed to take on models from BYD, Tesla and Toyota.
“We want to have something a bit dynamic. We don’t want an electric car which is like a fridge or a laptop or something like that. We want to give it something special. It won’t be ultra-cheap, it won’t be ultra-high, it’ll be accessible for everyone,” says John Warner, Dreame Chief Designer.
The company is also exploring unconventional distribution methods, and considering partnerships with existing consumer-electronics retail chains like Harvey Norman and The Good Guys as an alternative to establishing a traditional dealership network.
“What we’ve done in our core business has been extraordinary. In Australia right now we have 700 distribution points for everything from floor care through to smart home and beauty,” says James Moore, Dreame’s country manager for Australia and New Zealand.
“We’re not afraid of going left-field. There’s no harm in looking at those opportunities. I’d say watch this space.”
