It's been more than 40 years since the DeLorean hit the streets in its original form. Now, plans from a Texas-based group call for a modern DeLorean—one that's recast as an electric car.
Set to debut in concept form with a production-intent design on Aug. 21 during Monterey Car Week in Pebble Beach, California, the as yet unnamed DeLorean will be a reimagined electric coupe for the modern era, according to CEO Joost de Vries.
The new DeLorean Motor Company incorporated in Delaware on Feb. 28 of this year. That’s the same company name John DeLorean used to produce the DMC-12 in the late 1970s. But the new DeLorean won’t be a continuation car, and de Vries told Motor Authority it won't be a copy and paste from the past.
The company’s headquarters will be based out of Port San Antonio, Texas. De Vries said the company plans to become a full-line OEM with more than just the electric coupe.
How we got here
In the 1980s, after DeLorean went bankrupt in 1982, Stephen Wynne repaired old DMC-12s and accumulated the trademarks and most of the surplus parts and assets of the former company in 1995. For many, that made him the steward of the DMC-12.
In 2017, Wynne’s company, Classic DeLorean, announced plans to reimagine the DMC-12. This was to take place under the cover of new legislation signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2015 that would allow the company to remanufacture up to 325 cars per year.
De Vries and his team originally planned to electrify and reimagine DMC-12 with Wynn’s company, Classic DeLorean. However, plans fell apart because the legislation wasn’t pushed through under the original timeline. Despite passing through congress and being signed into law by President Obama in 2015, the Low Volume Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Act of 2015 stalled until the NHTSA finally established regulations, which just went into effect in March.
After the original plan fell apart de Vries approached Wynne and said, Hey, why don’t we look at this much bigger? The executive believes DeLorean is strong enough as a brand that it deserves to be a new startup rather than a reimagined vehicle. “Truly a full line OEM,” he said.
But first, the new DeLorean needed a new look. The iconic DMC-12 was designed by Italdesign founder Giorgetto Giugiario. Giorgetto, and his son Fabrizio, never stopped penning DeLorean designs in their own time, according to de Vries. While a new car was never physically produced, data and drawings were created over the years quietly and are now being pulled out of drawers. ”It’s stuff the world has never seen,” de Vries said. Images will be shared over time to illustrate how the Giugiarios imagined the car would look today as it evolved over time.
Who’s funding this?
With the idea moving along, the topic of money came up next, naturally.
“You need a billion dollars to build an OEM, and that’s the minimum,” de Vries said.
DeLorean Motor Company is in the process of acquiring that money. The first round of funding came from accredited investors to make the company real. The second round is said to come mainly from institutional investors, while the third round will likely be loans, according to the CEO.
De Vries wouldn’t comment on how much money the first and second rounds of funding raised. However, Chief Marketing Officer Troy Beetz said the startup automaker is “well funded” for the current stage, though he noted the company will need to secure additional rounds of funding to advance the company’s larger plans.
For now, Classic DeLorean is the largest individual shareholder in DeLorean Motor Company.
De Vries said DeLorean Motor Company will go public at some point, explaining that once the formal paperwork is filed with the SEC the timeline is normally 16-18 months, which has yet to begin. The longer the company can stay private, the easier it will be to do the work without the scrutiny, de Vries said.
“Being public is not always a benefit,” he observed.