" loading="" class="lazyload size-article_feature" data-sizes="auto" data-src="" src="https://www.mercurynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/OCR-Z-DELOREAN-EV-1.jpg?w=534"/>
The notorious gull-winged DeLorean is being resurrected in Texas by a bunch of executives who most not too long ago labored at Irvine-based Karma Automotive. (FILE PHOTO: PAUL BERSEBACH, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER)
By Sean O’Kane | Bloomberg
The latest entrant within the battle for EV market share goes again to the longer term with an all-electric DeLorean.
The notorious gull-winged automotive is being resurrected in Texas by a bunch of executives who most labored on the China-backed, Irvine-based EV startup Karma Automotive. They’re working with Stephen Wynne, who acquired the DeLorean branding rights within the Nineties and provides elements for the 6,000 or so remaining automobiles.
Teasers to a brand new DeLorean EV emerged this week with a social media marketing campaign that kicked off earlier than Tremendous Bowl LVI, inviting viewers to join its premiere in 2022.
It’s not the primary time the thought of a DeLorean redux has surfaced. Web searches flip up tales each few years about how Wynne has tried to revive the model or produce low-volume fashions. However utilizing an electrical powertrain is a brand new twist on the thought.
The unique automotive gained notoriety within the early Nineteen Eighties each for its high quality issues and for the authorized woes of its creator, the late John DeLorean, earlier than the “Again to the Future” movie franchise turned it right into a pop-culture icon.
The brand new firm is known as DeLorean Motors Reimagined LLC and its chief government officer is Joost de Vries, Texas enterprise data and LinkedIn postings present. The agency will arrange a headquarters and an engineering outfit in San Antonio, with the potential to deliver 450 jobs, the town’s growth arm stated in an announcement.
The corporate didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
De Vries spent six years as vp of gross sales at Karma, which has developed and manufactured hybrid and electrical automobiles in Irvine and Moreno Valley, respectively, based mostly on mental property purchased from the 2013 chapter of Fisker Automotive.
The brand new firm’s chief advertising officer and vp of engineering additionally come from Karma.
The brand new crew may have their work minimize out for them, with DeLorean getting into an more and more crowded subject of startups struggling to observe Tesla into the world of electrical automobiles.