DeLorean Reimagined
The DeLorean Motor Company is promising a premiere of their new electric concept car.
Gas? Where we are going, we don’t need gas! Well, I took the liberty of swapping the word “roads” for “gas,” but with where we are in our transition to electric vehicles, this revised line from the Spielberg movie Back to the Future may be quite appropriate.
In fact, if you weren’t paying attention, you could have easily missed the 15 second spot for DeLorean Motor Company featuring the front outline of a vehicle with gull-wing doors raising with the tagline, “The future was never promised.”
Now, the DeLorean Motor Company is promising a premiere of the electric concept car on Thursday, August 18, at the Awards Ramp at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance followed by the new EV being displayed on the Concept Lawn at Pebble Beach on August 21st.
Joost de Vries is the CEO of DeLorean Motor Company, and he may indeed be the perfect person to make lightning strike twice.
“I’ve been in the automotive space since I was 12,” said Joost, who was a guest on my most recent podcast. “Many different companies, many different continents.” Most recently, he was at Tesla from the transition from Roadster to Model S, then Karma Automotive for the past six and a half years.
“A few years ago, we worked with Stephen Wynne, who was the owner of the [DeLorean] brand and has been for the last three decades. [We felt] this brand is big enough to stand on its own, so here we are.”
The headquarters are in San Antonio, Texas. Joost points to being able to attract talent and being affordable as two of the top traits the city offered.
And the time might indeed be right for reinventing a classic icon of a car such as the DeLorean. Ford has reimagined the F-150 (Lightning) and Mustang (Mach-E) as electric, and Chevy is coming out with its electrified Blazer. And I know there are countless adoring fans looking forward to the VW ID. Buzz as a throwback to the VW bus of yesteryear. Tugging on our automotive heartstrings may be a tact that will pay off nicely.
Joost did extensive research on the DeLorean, which brought him back to the original designers. He discovered that for the past 40 years, the designing of subsequent DeLoreans hasn’t ceased.
“What you will actually see over the next 90 days is that we are going to introduce to the market the 1990 DeLorean, the 2000 DeLorean, and the 2010 DeLorean (designs) before we are going to launch our new vehicle,” said Joost.
He fondly recounts that they met three generations of designers in Italy — the grandfather, the father, and the son — who have been involved over the past 40 years with the brand.
“Design-wise, it was really challenging for us to make something iconic again with gull-wing doors but given the realities of how we have to package our new drivetrain and our new chassis,” said Joost,
The DeLorean in the famous film Back to the Future was more than just a vehicle. You could make the case that the car was an essential character. It is a feel-good brand that captures the imagination and points to endless possibilities.
For more information, you can go to delorean.com to see the evolution of an American icon unfold.
And, as Dr. Emmett Brown famously said a long time ago, “If you’re going to build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style?”
Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
Latest CleanTechnica.TV Video
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.
