Possibly the most recognizable car from the second half of the 20th century is the DeLorean DMC-12. From its avant-garde design to its distinctive gull-wing doors, the DMC-12 is an American icon. However, it was a fundamentally flawed vehicle. With an output of just 130 horsepower and poor reliability, the DeLorean's unique looks seemingly compensated for its numerous characteristics in which it was lacking. Like the early Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid electric car, the DMC-12 did not hold its footing in the market for an extensive period.
Synonymous with its product, there were many issues within the management of the automaker. Due to a series of misfortunes within the brand's direction, DeLorean went bankrupt in the early 1980s. Despite having plans for future generational vehicles, the firm became defunct, yet its cult following rose.
There have always been talks of resurrecting the company, but nothing seemed to be concrete. There is another company called "DeLorean Motor Company" located in Humble, Texas, but it mainly produces parts and restores old DeLoreans.
The Next Chapter Of A Historic Icon
However, that was until early 2022 when a new OEM publicly announced its plan to produce and deliver the next generation of DeLoreans, but this time, it will be electrified. This new company is called "DeLorean Motor Company," but with an "Inc." at the end.
Resurrecting an automotive icon is no easy feat, especially when you're an automaker producing a low-volume electric sports car. A competent team was necessary for survival to restart DeLorean, and a group of automotive industry executives teamed up to bring the concept to fruition.
"When you put a lot of people together that know the steps on how to run an automotive company the right way, who know the roadblocks, and are able to have a connection list that can get you in contact with suppliers, it just made sense to put us all together to see if we can build this vehicle from the ground up," said Troy Beetz, DeLorean Motor Company Inc.'s chief marketing officer.
Beetz has worked in many roles in the automotive space, ranging from NIO's director of global product planning to being the VP of marketing at Karma Automotive. Besides Beetz, the firm also employs Joost de Vries as its CEO. de Vries is a former executive at Tesla, and like Beetz, he has also held a VP role at Karma Automotive.
After settling on San Antonio for the firm's headquarters, it was time to work on developing how to go about producing the vehicle. "If you wanted to be an electric car company, a normal program to deliver a car is between 1.2 and 1.6 billion dollars," Beetz told HotCars. So for DeLorean, developing its own production facility from end to end would be unreasonable.
"If you're a legacy OEM like BMW, you have about sixteen vehicles that can possibly use the same suspension that you're creating. For us, it's light manufacturing. There are companies out there whose only role is to build electric platforms, but light manufacturing requires us to work with suppliers that are building these components for other OEMs," Beetz said. "If we intended to be an OEM that was creating our own tooling and our own electrical systems and ADAS Level 5 technology, Bosch {already} does that."
A New Direction
Since the firm's leaders have strong connections in the automotive industry, they view partnering as the best option for production. Unlike Fisker or NIO entirely contracting out production, DeLorean Motor Company Inc. plans to partner up for its components. They will build the vehicle in-house at its facility in San Antonio.
As for the vehicle's design, it will not simply be an electrified variant of the classic DeLorean. When the original DeLorean went bankrupt, the firm was and continued working on a future vehicle. "When DeLorean ended in 1983, in 1984 and 1985, there was still design work being done on the next generation vehicle that no one has ever seen before," Beetz told HotCars. So DeLorean had to decide to consider the evolution of its would-be products when constructing the new one. To go about this, DeLorean worked with the legendary Italian design firm, Italdesign, to create the next-gen car. Italdesign designed the original one, so this move was incontestable.
The Next Generation: Alpha5
"It's difficult to explain if you haven't seen the generational vehicles, but what we wanted to do was create a much-wider, more visually-appealing vehicle," Beetz said. "The design language was about compelling you to do something subconsciously. What we wanted to do was to artistically-develop a vehicle that compelled you to have an interaction with the vehicle at an emotional level. When you see our car, every aspect of the car will compel you to touch it. We did a lot of studies with a lot of other people and in clinics, and when you ask someone 'why did you touch the car?,' they don't know why they did it."
From the presently-available photos, it's unmistakable that the new DeLorean will have a very stylish look, but the team wants its design to remain timeless. "When we designed our vehicle, it was really to make sure that through time, the design of the interior will stay relevant. It's not going to look dated, it's going to look clean, and when the second owner gets it, you're not going to know it came from 2024," Beetz told HotCars.
Preventing A Vehicular Time Capsule
As an EV company, it's a necessity for its car to feature some tech-centric features. But integrating state-of-the-art tech while keeping a timeless interior is a challenging prospect. So DeLorean sought to integrate ambient technology into its vehicle. Think of ambient technology like an iPhone's "Backtap" feature; it's a helpful feature, but you'd have to be looking for it to find it.
"We've built in more human control over the vehicle almost at every level. When you look at the inside of our vehicle, you'll notice that there won't be a ton of screens. A lot of the content in the vehicle is going to be ambient technology that it's there if you need it, but you wouldn't know it's there unless you're looking for it," Beetz added.
With all this information, many enthusiasts are incredibly intrigued. An electrified comeback of a legendary automaker will likely meet an extremely positive reception if done right. DeLorean will feature the Alpha5 at Pebble Beach on August 21, 2022. At Pebble Beach, DeLorean will also showcase three other concept generational vehicles from 1990, 2000, and 2010.