DeLorean Plots an Electric Comeback

The DeLorean has certainly had an interesting life.

What was once the epitome of futuristic car design ultimately became a piece of nostalgia following the DMC DeLorean’s key supporting role in the Back to the Future films.

The company itself saw even more jarring ups and downs, including troubled production and a lukewarm public reception, followed by a rapid corporate demise and founder John DeLorean’s various legal troubles.

Anything with that type of pop culture staying power, however, is bound to turn up again every so often.

In the mid-1990s, a new company dubbed itself the DeLorean Motor Company to repair and rebuild the old company’s original cars. The company made the occasional, ill-fated attempt to resurrect the vehicle over the years, and the latest effort apparently kicked off on Super Bowl Sunday.

A 15-second ad showed a shadowy outline of the vehicle’s famed gull-wing doors and directed viewers to DeLorean.com, which mostly features an invitation to join its mailing list, as well as branded apparel.

Ordinarily, a cryptic ad from a new automaker should be taken with a grain of salt — regardless of how much money it took to put on the air — but a tweet from the company suggested that it would debut a new, electric DeLorean this year.

One day later, economic development officials in San Antonio said the DeLorean Motor Company has selected the Alamo City as its new global headquarters and intends to bring 400 executives, managers and engineers to southern Texas.

Other details have emerged, as well, including a new CEO: Joost de Vries, a former executive at Karma Automotive, which itself emerged from the remnants of Fisker — another once-touted startup automaker that went belly-up.

And Italdesign, whose founder designed the original DeLorean, hinted that it was also involved in the project.

It remains to be seen, of course, whether this version of the DeLorean succeeds where literally every other has failed. Among the first hurdles is a series of undisclosed financial incentives under consideration by officials in San Antonio and Bexar County.