DELOREAN’S NEW ALPHA 5 IS STRAIGHT OUT OF BACK TO THE FUTURE
1The DMC DeLorean is a rear-engine two-passenger sports car manufactured and marketed by John DeLorean's DeLorean Motor Company (DMC) for the American market from 1981 until 1983—ultimately the only car brought to market by the fledgling company. The DeLorean is sometimes referred to by its internal DMC pre-production designation, DMC-12.[10][11][12] However, the DMC-12 name was never used in sales or marketing material for the production model.[13]
Designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro and noted for its gull-wing doors and brushed stainless-steel outer body panels, the sports car was also noted for a lack of power and performance incongruous with its looks and price. Though its production was short-lived, it became widely known when it was featured as the time machine in the Back to the Future films.
With the first production car completed on January 21, 1981, the design incorporated numerous minor revisions to the hood, wheels and interior before production ended in late December 1982, shortly after DMC filed for bankruptcy and after total production reached about 9,000 units.
Despite the car having a reputation for poor build quality and an unsatisfactory driving experience, the DeLorean continues to have a strong following driven in part by the popularity of Back to the Future. An estimated 6,500 DeLoreans are still on the road.
Remember when we explained that classic DeLorean based in Humble, Texas is a wholly separate company from new DeLorean based in San Antonio? And when James Espey, VP at classic DMC, told us, "The new DeLorean that's been in the news since the Super Bowl ad in February is a clean sheet of paper design. It shares some of the DNA with the original DeLorean, but it's a clean sheet of paper"? Here is your clean-sheet-of-paper DeLorean. Penned by Italdesign, the same Italian creative firm that designed the DMC-12, the Alpha5 makes a trio of nods to the original. There's a wide pair of gullwing doors, louvers over the rear window, and three-layered taillights. After that, it's all 21st-century. What we know of the powertrain is a quote from CEO Joost de Vries, "We have some partners in the UK on the powertrain side." That sounds like a Williams Engineering affair, the English development company having worked with Italdesign on a modular EV powertrain that debuted last year.
What we've picked up so far is that in "Base Performance Spec" a battery of more than 100 kWh juices "multiple electric motors" that are powerful enough to get the 2+2 to 60 miles per hour in under three seconds. Range is reported to come in at a minimum of 300 miles on the EPA cycle. Painting a target on the Porsche Taycan in terms of capability and being described as a tool "for people that love to drive," the Alpha5 is sized within inches of the Porsche in length, width, and height. We're not sure where how it compares to the Taycan's 114.2-inch wheelbase, though.
The interior looks like another uncluttered electric affair. We do want to find out, however, if the climate controls really are tucked into the recess under the instrument panel.
The Alpha5 is the opening note in DeLorean's electric orchestra. According to Autocar, what comes next is an halo coupe powered by an internal combustion V8, an all-electric sedan, and a hydrogen-powered SUV. We already know the names AlphaIV, Alpha 3, Alpha2 and Alpha are waiting. That hydrogen people hauler is one of two odd bits in the Autocar piece. De Vries told the mag the company "needs to SUV for volume" and that DeLorean isn't ready to commit its entire portfolio to battery power. And sure, DeLorean's idea of volume isn't GM's idea of volume. But hydrogen power seems an odd choice for any definition of volume.
The other strange note is when Autocar writes that the first 88 units of the Alpha 5 "will serve as an avatar for an associated NFT, meaning they won’t be road-registered and suitable only for track use," and after that will come a production run of road-legal cars. If true, and given the rumored price of somewhere in sight of $200,000, a track-only variant seems a strange reward for early adopters.
The Alpha5 remains scheduled for a Monterey Car Week debut on August 18, and production in Italy in 2024 that will commence, of course, with a launch edition that will come in the red hue seen above, with black accents.