Although the DeLorean DMC-12 was a commercial flop, it’s still an automotive icon. Made popular by the excellent Back to the Future movie trilogy, the rear-engined sports car is coming back in 2022. Following a 30-year hiatus, the two-door coupe with its stainless-steel body is returning as a purely electric vehicle by ditching the old V6 sourced from Peugeot-Renault-Volvo (PRV).
The original DMC-12 was an expensive failure, in part due to its underpowered gasoline engine. Hopefully, the new electric transplant will solve the issue. It’s being teased by Italdesign, the very same Italian car design house that penned the already classic model in the early 1980s. None other than iconic automotive designer Giorgetto Giugiaro drew the Belfast-built car, which gained quite the reputation for its poor build quality.
Details about its modern-day equivalent are shrouded in mystery, although we do know it will be built by the DeLorean Motor Company (DMC) as its ancestor. The company is based in Humble, Texas and is owned by Stephen Wynne, an engineer born in Liverpool. One of the hashtags posted on social media is #DeLoreanEVolved, which may or may not be the car’s official name. We do know it’s an electric vehicle as denoted by the namesake moniker.
It’s unclear upon which platform the new EV will ride, although Italdesign did join forces with Williams Advanced Engineering in 2021 to work on a modular architecture. It will be good for as much as 1,341 horsepower (1,000 kilowatts) and batteries varying in capacity from 104 to 160 kWh. Fitted with the latter, an electric car could cover as much as 621 miles (1,000 kilometers) before having to recharge.
The brief teaser video shows the new zero-emissions car will stay true to its predecessor by adopting gullwing doors. That EVX platform we mentioned will accommodate wheelbases varying in size from 2,900 to 3,100 mm (114.1 to 122 inches), but neither DeLorean nor Italdesign are saying the reborn DMC-12 will ride on that bespoke electric car architecture.
We should learn about the retro-flavored EV in the following months as the official reveal is slated to take place in 2022.
Source: Italdesign
