Nearly two months after its debut at the Super Bowl, DeLorean Motor is inching closer to revealing itself to the public.
The Humble, Texas, electric-vehicle maker, which shares the name of the vehicle from the "Back to the Future" film franchise, started getting buzz after a 15-second spot during The Super Bowl this year.
DeLorean Motor isn't the original company of that name -- the one that was founded by John DeLorean in 1975 and shut down seven years later. But the new company does have the rights to the original DMC name and branding.
The new company, which was incorporated at the end of November, is led by Joost de Vries, the former vice president of Chinese luxury electric vehicle brand Karma Automotive.
DeLorean Motor has a lot of work to do if it wants to catch EV-market leader Tesla (TSLA), which delivered nearly a million vehicles last year, as well as the legacy automakers and upstart challengers in the EV space.
The 15-second teaser from seven weeks ago may have been enough to pique curiosity among those old enough to remember the original films. But the new company will need more to actually start delivering vehicles in what is becoming an increasingly crowded U.S. market.
DeLorean's Next Revelation Phase
DeLorean is going with the "less is more" mode of advertising for its rollout.
On Tuesday, DeLorean released its first sneak peek of its EV.
The company says that the concept car will premiere in full on Aug. 18 at the Awards Ramp at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance.
The company says that the vehicle will be revealed over the duration of the nine-day Monterey Car Week at Pebble Beach in August "through a series of activations and events" during the auto show.
DeLorean's Tough Road Ahead
Nabil Nasr, associate provost and founding director of Rochester Institute of Technology’s Golisano Institute for Sustainability, said DeLorean Motor may be going down a rocky road, given the competition from the likes of Tesla and the legacy automakers that 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 Motor 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 startups 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."
