(Yicai) Aug. 24 -- Dreame Technology’s plan to enter the new energy vehicle industry, unveiled to much fanfare a year ago, appears to have run into trouble, according to a person familiar with the matter and a visit by Yicai to the offices of the Chinese robot vacuum maker’s car project.

More than two-thirds of the desks on the ninth floor of the office building in Suzhou where Dreame’s automotive division is based were vacant when Yicai visited on a workday last week.

Dreame has rented three floors for its auto division, dubbed Project Star, a company insider told Yicai. At its peak, the project employed 700 to 800 people, and around three-quarters of the desks on the ninth floor were occupied.

Project Star began laying off staff more than two months ago, with about 25 percent of the workforce departing in each wave, the person noted, adding that only a few executives will remain to handle outstanding supplier payments after the latest round of layoffs is completed.

The layoffs started in June, Sheng Jinlong, general manager of Suzhou Zhaorui Talent Management Consulting, told Yicai. Since then, recruitment platforms have seen a sharp increase in resumes from individuals who worked at Project Star, including from more than 20 of its directors, alongside an even larger number from managers. Most had spent between six months and more than a year working at the project.

Some of them are still working at Project Star, while others have already left, Sheng said, citing information available on online hiring platforms. For a startup with nearly 1,000 employees, dozens of directors simultaneously seeking new jobs is a strong indicator of operational challenges, Sheng noted.

Last August, Dreame made a high-profile announcement of its entry into vehicle production, stating that its first model would benchmark against the Bugatti Veyron and was scheduled for mass production in 2027. During the Consumer Electronics Show in January, founder Yu Hao released a video about the model, the Nebula Next 01. Since then, three versions of the Nebula Next 01 series have been unveiled.

Yicai observed that one of the vehicles was parked in the underground car park at Project Star’s office building, but it was covered over, and barriers has been set up around it. The insider told Yicai that the vehicle is not drivable. The company has customized 10 cars in different colors, each costing around CNY3 million (USD446,220), according to the source.

“At first, we genuinely intended to build cars and even spent a significant amount of money on research to gather feedback from potential consumers,” the person said. “However, we gradually realized that the goal of mass production by 2027 was simply unattainable.”

According to the person, Dreame pursued three parallel strategies in an effort to being a vehicle to market: developing and making vehicles itself, outsourcing production to a contract manufacturer, and building an overseas factory. It planned to proceed with whichever strategy proved successful, but ultimately, none of the three actually materialized, the source said.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione