alt=Art RaymondWell, it doesn’t come equipped with a flux capacitor and can’t produce 1.21 “jigowatts” of power, but the new DeLorean Alpha 5 sports car does lean entirely on electricity to get around.
Oh, and it can hit 88 miles per hour in 4.35 seconds entirely without lightning strike synchronization.
“Back to the Future”: For many, the touchpoint for the iconic DeLorean DMC12 is the “Back to the Future” franchise, starring Michael J. Fox as the time-traveling lead character, Marty McFly and, of course, Christopher Lloyd as Dr. Emmett “Doc” Brown, the genius behind the transtemporal technology.
While gull-wing doors are the obvious heritage design element connecting the ’80s version with the Alpha 5, there’s very little else when it comes to shared genealogy between the two super cars.
For starters, the company launched in 1975 by John DeLorean produced only a single model, and while the stainless-steel clad sports car was notable for its sharp lines and unique door style, it was bankrupt and out of business three years before the first “Back to the Future” movie hit theaters in 1985.
Design: According to CNET, this ambitious new project is the brainchild of a company based in Humble, Texas, best known for building and selling refurbished vintage DeLorean DMC-12 sports cars.
Having acquired the remainder of the original company’s parts inventory and later the brand’s name, trademarks and logos, the Houston-adjacent company has been promising to build electrified DeLoreans since at least 2011, and the Alpha 5 looks to be the result.
CNET reports that, unlike the original two-seat DeLorean, this is a four-seat model with double-length gull-wing doors. The slippery look is the handiwork of Italdesign, a famous Italian firm known for leading the 1970s wedge-design movement with cars like the BMW M1, Maserati Bora, Volkswagen Scirocco and, perhaps not surprisingly, the DMC-12. Interestingly enough, the original DeLorean Motor Company had plans to expand into larger, four-to-five-seat automobiles.
DeLorean Alpha 5 specs: Data posted on Delorean’s website indicates the Alpha 5 will be equipped with a 100 kWh-plus battery pack, have a range of 300 miles and a top speed of 155 mph.
Road & Track reports the Alpha 5 concept officially debuts at a Pebble Beach car show in August, with a production car planned to follow in 2024. In an interview with Autocar, CEO Joost de Vries specifies that the first run will be 88 limited edition, track-only cars meant to “serve as an avatar for an associated NFT,” but that will be followed by a production run of cars that would be eligible for actual legal registration and use.
Although the brand is set to debut with an electric car, according to Road & Track, this is not necessarily an all-electric brand. In addition to the Alpha 5, de Vries also told Autocar that the full DeLorean roster should include a sports car powered by a conventional V-8 and a luxury SUV powered by hydrogen. It is an ambitious plan that would effectively require developing three separate platforms with completely different engineering needs.