It looks like the DMC DeLorean is on the way back as an electric car with a new design from Italdesign, after teases from DeLorean and Italdesign.
Even non-petrolheads know the story of the Delorean Motor Company, where an American car man persuades Margarate Thatcher’s government to back the production of a sports car in Belfast, ropes in Giugiaro to design it and Lotus to engineer it, but runs out of money and turns to ‘unorthodox’ methods to raise new capital and keep the business afloat. Which it didn’t.
None of the shenanigans surrounding DeLorean really hid the fact that it was a car whose visuals also couldn’t cash the cheques they signed, with just a weedy 130bhp Citroen V6 powering what looked like a proper supercar.
When the dust had settled on the DeLorean fiasco – with its eponymous owner somehow ‘exonerated’ – the DeLorean had been elevated to cult status by the Back to the Future film, giving it a place in motoring history it really doesn’t deserve as a result.
But the notoriety and movie cult status are powerful hooks to grab attention, so it’s a bit of a surprise that there’s been no successful rebooting of the DeLorean as an EV (there has been one effort). But that looks set to change.
Italdesign – founded by Giugiaro, the DeLorean’s original designer – and the DeLorean Motor Company – owned by Brit Stephen Wynne which bought the DeLorean Brand 27 years ago – are both teasing a new DeLorean Motor Car (video below) indicated a modern take on the DMC-12 and with an electric powertrain.
So far no details on what’s planned, but the hashtags used on the video suggest DeLorean EVolved is the likely moniker.
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