Marty McFly, your ride is almost here.
The iconic sports car with the gull-wing doors that propelled the hero of the 1980s classic "Back to the Future" trilogy through time is looking to make its presence felt in the present.
The DeLorean Motor Company gave the world a sneak peak of its new model in a video that was shown during the Super Bowl pregame.
The video opened with a vehicle shrouded in darkness followed by a brief view of gull-wing doors and a silver outer body.
The tagline "The future was never promised" appears on the screen.
'We Are Not Releasing Any Details'
The Texas-based company has been tight-lipped about what to expect, saying in an email that "at the moment, we are not releasing any details when it comes to our upcoming Delorean vehicle launch."
The company has a website that asks interested parties to sign up to receive emails about the once and future vehicle. A Twitter page asks people "Reimagine Today" and includes the hashtags #ElectricVehicle, #Luxury and #BigGame.
In June, the company announced an auction of a 1981 DeLorean and a series of 40 DeLorean 1-of-1 non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, to mark the original carmaker's 40th anniversary.
The original DeLorean Motor Company was founded in 1975 by automobile executive John DeLorean, who had managed the development of a number of vehicles throughout his career, including the Pontiac GTO muscle car, the Pontiac Firebird and the Pontiac Grand Prix.
DMC operated a manufacturing plant in Northern Ireland, but the company ended in receivership and bankruptcy in 1982. DeLorean was arrested that same year after being videotaped in an FBI sting operation agreeing to bankroll drug trafficking, but was later acquitted on the basis of entrapment.
John DeLorean died in 2005 at the age of 80. Roughly 9,000 cars that bear his name were made.
In 1995, Liverpool-born mechanic Stephen Wynne founded the current DeLorean Motor Co., which is located in Humble, TX. The new company acquired the trademarks, intellectual property, and the remaining car parts from the original firm, according to a 2019 article in Popular Mechanics.
Wynne, who is the CEO, said he bought the entire inventory of a company called Consolidated International, which had acquired DMC's U.S. assets, including thousands of leftover parts.
'A Tough Game to Play for Newcomers'
Nabil Nasr, associate provost and founding director of Rochester Institute of Technology’s Golisano Institute for Sustainability, said he thinks the DeLorean may be going down a rocky road, given the competition from the likes of Tesla (TSLA) and the legacy automakers who are developing electric vehicles of their own.
"Electric vehicles are a tough game to play for newcomers," he said. "I think there's just a lot of unknowns. Obviously, DeLorean is a recognized name with certain people, but a lot of younger generation don't recognize that name."
Nasr said a lot depends "on who they are partnering with, what kind of cells are they planning on using or are they going with the new wave of chemistries or different chemistries."
"With electrification, there's a wave new players coming," he said. "You can buy a lot of components, you can buy batteries, you can put a car together, but there are a lot of issues related to the integration of the system that controls the supply chains ecosystem and that's where the challenge is going to be."
Brian Larson, marketing professor at Widener University, said DeLorean already has a level of international awareness "thanks in no small part to the 'Back to the Future' movies that live on providing infinite minutes of free product placement for the brand."
"The supply of EVs is a double-edge sword," he said. "While the market is being flooded with competitive options, existing automakers are introducing models and converting over their existing manufacturing capacity, new start-ups are also appearing at an amazing pace."
Companies like Rivian (RIVN) and Wuling, Larson said, "have come out of nowhere to be disruptors in the field."
The new DeLorean opened the floor to questions on its Twitter page, asking "We see you're a car fan and EV enthusiast. What would you like to see from us?"
"Details; the look, price, and range," one person tweeted. "If this is an overpriced niche car, I’ll pass on the marketing hype, there are already a lot of insanely priced EV’s. What we need is an EV version of what the old Corvettes started out as; sports cars that weren’t out of reach."
"It’s about time!" another person said. "Specifically what makes your product unique and advantageous compared to the rest of the EV market. Looking forward to seeing what y’all have in store and how DeLorean sees the future of automotive!"
"Put a real engine in it, not that ev garbage," a third person commented.
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