DeLorean Motor Company, the company famous for the DeLorean DMC-12 sports car that served as the basis of Doc Brown's time machine in the “Back to the Future” movies, has been revived as an EV company and is working on its first model, the Alpha5.
First shown last May, the Alpha5 is a large coupe that packs a 100-kwh battery and is promised to deliver a range of more than 300 miles on a charge.
Like the DMC-12, the Alpha5 was penned by Italdesign and features a pair of gullwing doors. It will also easily hit 88 mph, a feat it can achieve in just 4.4 seconds, according to the company.
DeLorean had planned to build 9,531 Alpha5 coupes, which was the number the original DeLorean had planned for the DMC-12's run, according to current DeLorean CEO Joost DeVries. He said the number actually built was a little under 9,000.
DeLorean Alpha5
In an email statement to Motor Authority, DeVries said his company will now build just 4,000 Alpha5 coupes, over the same five-year production span the company previously announced. DeVries cited supply chain constraints as the reason for the reduced production. He said the company would prefer to sell only as many cars as it can guarantee it can build, rather than sell extra cars and then fail to deliver them.
The company is currently accepting reservations for the Alpha5, which uniquely is being done via the sale of an NFT (non-fungible token) linked to a build slot. DeLorean even plans to establish an exchange in which the NFTs (and thus the build slots) can be traded.
The NFT costs $2,500, though the price will rise to $3,500 on March 12, after which further price increases of $500 will be introduced for every 500 reservations made.
DeLorean hasn't said how much the Alpha5 will cost and where it will be built. However, DeVries said that information, as well as final specifications and timing for the start of deliveries, will be announced late this year. DeLorean has more models on the drawing boards, glimpses of which appear on the company's website, though at present all efforts are on the Alpha5, DeVries said.
