Back to the Future references aside, the DeLorean DMC-12 was a pretty cool car. While not a sports car, packing just a small V-6 under the hood, the stainless steel construction and gull-wing doors were enough to turn a lot of heads. Alright fine, being in one of the most popular movies of all time definitely didn’t hurt it.
Being a fan of the car, I was more than a little intrigued to learn that the company had been purchased and plans were put into place to make new versions of the vehicle with parts that were never used the first time around. But instead of the traditional engine under the hood, this new DeLorean would be electric.
I wanted this to happen.
The company even brought one to the New York Auto Show in 2012, with talks of production in 2013. New company president Stephen Wynn seemed to be channeling John DeLorean himself with his passion and talk of developing all-new cars under the company name other than the famed DMC-12. As for the DMC-12 itself, it would be fitted with an impressive 400v AC induction motor, capable of great range and going 0-60 in 4.9.
Well, I recently checked back in to see how things were going with all of this. It’s 2014, so surely there are electric DeLoreans available, right? Honestly, I’m still not sure. When you go to the company website, they seem to be more interested in selling you DMC luggage than cars. There is some talk of restoration, but news of new DeLoreans is hard to come by.
After browsing through the site, I finally came upon the Coming Soon section. This seems to be the only potential for new DeLoreans. But, as you could expect from the title of the page, they are all teased as arriving “soon.” There are a few listed as “sold” on the site, but no mention of an electric powertrain. Even the company news page reflects the same lack of production, as anything related to an actual vehicle being produced is over a year old.
There appear to be a few things happening at DMC, however, and it looks like the company was involved with the Radio Shack Super Bowl commercial that featured the DeLorean. But that’s kind of the problem. One of the most recent articles out there about DMC seems to indicate that the company is making Back to the Future replicas, which would coincide with the Super Bowl commercial appearance.
Is this as good as it gets for the DeLorean?
Making novelty movie restoration models is a far cry from what the company seemed to be shooting for two years ago. And frankly, it’s disappointing.
If you want to get excited, but then deflated at the reality, watch this video.
I hope that I’m way off and the promised Electric DeLorean is still on its way. But the realist in me knows that the “new” DeLorean is headed for the same fate as the old company. Damn.
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