Texas-based DeLorean DMC, the company that owns the rights to the DeLorean will launch a sports car version of the famous hybrid time machine-car later this year, a report from Autocar reveals.
Though the first iteration of the DeLorean halted production after the DeLorean Motor Company (DMC) filed for bankruptcy in the 1980s, the car has lived on in popular culture and in various guises over the years. In 2019, for example, Stanford engineers developed a self-driving, drifting DeLorean called Marty, after the character in 1985’s ‘Back to the Future franchise that is largely responsible for the car’s fame.
Now, DeLorean DMC, founded by British engineer Stephen Wynne after acquiring the rights to the car in 1995, provided a new update on Twitter, alongside a short teaser video.
Though the update didn’t provide much at all in the way of details, it did reveal that the new model will be called the DeLorean EVolved — to signify the fact that it will be an electric vehicle. The company also wrote “#luxury” in its tweet, suggesting the new version of the vehicle will be a high-end sports vehicle.
Scarce details on the 2022 DeLorean
The one concrete detail the teaser video does reveal is that the new DeLorean will retain the gullwing doors of previous designs, including the original DMC model. Last year, DMC hinted that it might be bringing the famous car back as an electric vehicle. In a blog post, the company wrote “It certainly makes for an easier path through emissions maze which still looms large over any internal combustion engine. While an electric Cobra or Morgan may be a little extreme for their potential market, we’ve already seen that an EV DeLorean – as we displayed at the 2012 New York International Auto Show – is not such an ‘out there’ idea.”
Another company, design house Italdesign, also showed off a teaser image last year, suggesting it might be collaborating on the DMC’s upcoming project. Italdesign’s founder, Giorgetto Giugiaro, worked on the original DMC car. Notably, however, there is no information on an electric powertrain supplier, though Italdesign did recently sign an agreement with British firm Williams Advanced Engineering to build an open-source EV platform.
Though some might see the relaunch of the DeLorean’s retro stylings as a cynical cash grab in the wake of Tesla’s Cybertruck upcoming launch, others might argue that pop culture clout could provide the added incentive some need to finally go electric.