The rebirth of DMC as an electric car company will kick off at Pebble Beach in August
DeLorean Motor Company has revealed a teaser of its first all-electric sports car ahead of its debut at Pebble Beach in August, marking the return of the iconic nameplate from the original doomed project of the 1980s for a new generation.
Infamous for the controversy surrounding John DeLoren’s downfall after he was charged for trafficking $24 million of narcotics into the United States, it led to the collapse of the British Government backed DeLorean Motor Company, despite the original DeLorean DMC-12 going on to find fame in the film franchise Back to the Future.
Today’s DeLorean has little to do with the former, with the brand reborn by Stephen Wynne who purchased the rights to the company in 1995 and has established a new headquarters in San Antonio, Texas – a far cry from the suburbs of Belfast where the original DMC was located.
The new era of DeLorean, unsurprisingly, finds its basis as an electric sports car manufacturer, where it has once again partnered with ItalDesign to create a modern electric sports car with more than a few nods to the DMC-12.
This partnership with ItalDesign should yield benefits to the fledgling EV maker, giving gravitas to a model launching into a sea of startups and new-era electric car companies. Very little in the way of technical information has been so far revealed by DeLorean, but we do know that its form will be loosely inspired by the original, with a compact two-seater coupe body defined by gullwing doors. It will also reimagine the DMC-12’s slatted rear screen, and a silver launch colour inspired by the original’s stainless steel bodywork.
The rest of the car should otherwise exploit a more contemporary and curvaceous design language, rather than an obvious pastiche of late-1970s motifs. The black roof instantly informs a more modern design, so too a rising windowline and slim LED lighting graphics. As portrayed by shutlines seen on the rear deck, the new DeLorean will also feature an active rear wing, which itself creates a completely different silhouette to the iconic original.
Where the new DeLorean will sit in relation to other electric sports cars is still to be confirmed, but given the nature of the brand and the previous DMC-12’s focus on accessibility it’s unlikely to be a seven figure electric hypercar in the vane of the Lotus Evija or Pininfarina Battista.
This article originally appeared at evo.co.uk
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