Roads? Where we’re going, we’re…still going to need roads, unfortunately – but not traditional fossil fuel!
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What was the original DeLorean famous for?
Definitely best known as being the time machine in Back to the Future, the iconic DeLorean car was – surprisingly – only manufactured between 1981 and 1982, as the DeLorean Motor Company (DMC) filed for bankruptcy in late ‘82.
Just 9,000 cars were manufactured in that time, yet its futuristic, gullwing-style design – and association with the trilogy of time travel movies starring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd – has kept it alive as a pop culture icon for the last 40 years.
How come there’s still a DeLorean Motor Company?
Well, this isn’t the same DMC that went out of business in the early 80s. The current company – which bears the same name as the original car manufacturer, but is otherwise unassociated with it – has been around since 1995.
With 6500 of the original model DeLorean cars still in operation to this day, the new DMC was set up to support owners of the single DeLorean model with parts, servicing and restoration.
So the DMC are now making a car of their own?
Yes! The original DeLorean Motor Company had plans to make more models of DeLorean, but their abrupt demise meant that they only ever released the one vehicle (meaning Doc Brown didn’t have to make a choice once he’d settled on a DMC car to fit the flux capacitor in!).
The new DMC have had plans to make their own DeLoreans for a few years, but this is the first time they’ve released designs and concept art for an entirely new electric vehicle bearing the DeLorean name.
Though it’s a modern, futuristic-looking design, the new DeLorean – named the Alpha5, which seems like a coincidental, perhaps accidental nod to Power Rangers – features a similar gull-wing door design familiar to fans of the original DeLorean.
When will it be available to purchase?
So far, only concept art has been shown – and the car itself (an electric vehicle, no less) isn’t expected to debut until August this year.
So we’re a long way off from the car being released – it’s estimated to be available in 2024.
What kind of performance can we expect?
According to DeLorean themselves, the Alpha5 will have a range of 300+ miles on a single charge, from a battery of 100+kWh, and electronically limited top speeds of 155 mph. So yes, you can definitely push it to the time travel speed of 88mph without any difficulty!
When can I find out more?
The DeLorean website itself is intriguingly counting down with a silhouette of the new design – so more information is sure to be hitting the internet soon.
You can check out the official DeLorean website at delorean.com for further information – at least once that countdown clock has reached zero!
