Set to Debut at Pebble Beach in August this all-new DeLorean is supposed to embody the spirit of the old one.
The modern DeLorean Motor Company is, essentially, a parts company that sells replacement components for DMC’s original car. They are the main investors in the new DeLorean Motors Reimagined (DMR) company. Over the past few years, rumors of building an all-new car have emanated from the company, and now the announcement is firm. They will debut the DeLorean EV in August.
Details are slim regarding this all-new take on an icon, though. Car and Driver revealed, by way of DMR’s CEO Joost de Vries, that the battery and motor will be outsourced. Also, the company is expecting a 300-mile range. C&D stated that the new DeLorean is “built for drivers.”
Looking at the teaser image, the most obvious connection to the original are the butterfly doors. The front end design and logo hint at a sleek nose, but reveal little else. You can get a better look at those doors in action at the DeLorean Motors Reimagined website.
They appear to be serious
De Vries once worked at both Volvo and Tesla. Now, he’s steering the ship for this modern take on the iconic DeLorean. It appears that this is a good start for a low-volume automaker, but we’ll have to wait before we can say more on the matter.
Some background: The famous (and infamous) DeLorean
I was lucky enough to drive the original car, and it was a bit underwhelming. While it looked stunning, it never had the performance chops to match its Giugiaro designed exterior. It came with a 130 horsepower V6 along with a five speed manual, or three speed automatic transmission. It handled fairly well, but it was painfully slow.
Plagued by financial, production and quality issues, the DMC DeLorean never caught on and it became a sales failure. Priced at $25,000 (in 1981) the initial consumer reaction was positive. Dealerships refused to buy them – even at a huge discount.
Once the company declared bankruptcy, the remaining cars on the line were finished at the Dunmurry factory. Altogether; it’s estimated that just under 9,000 DMC DeLoreans were built.
As a cultural icon, the DeLorean stands as a image of the 1980’s excess and flair. When it stared in the Back to the Future franchise, it gained immortality. Sure, there were other moments that spotlighted the car, and its enigmatic father, but the films truly kept the car in our consciousness. Recently, a team from Stanford University used an old DeLorean to create an autonomous EV.
We’ll see where the future takes us. Interestingly, the motto DeLorean Motors Reimagined uses is, “The future was never promised.” Is that a good thing?
