AUTO

DeLorean CEO: Not One New Car, FOUR New Cars Coming

April 7, 2022

The reborn DeLorean Motor Cars DMC 12 is 90 days away— but it’s not alone. In a one-on-one interview, DeLorean CEO Joost de Vries explains that the real story is much, much bigger than that.

He may not be as famous as Elon Musk or Peter Rawlinson, but DeLorean CEO Joost de Vries has played a role in almost every major EV startup of the modern era (say, post-2008). With stints at both Tesla and Fisker, Joost knows the space well— but, more importantly, he is an automotive enthusiast of the highest order, with a deep knowledge and even deeper passion for cars. (He still owns his original Tesla Roadster, and absolutely does not want the new DMC to be, “an iPad on wheels.”)

Now in the big chair at DeLorean, de Vries has big plans for the brand that pulled off a bit of a marketing coup at this year’s super bowl. Plans that could see DeLorean go from a legendary maker of small-volume sporty cars to a full line automaker that could rival Porsche, Jaguar, and Aston Martin.

Eventually.

In the meantime, de Vries is busy building out the company’s new San Antonio office space and commuting back and forth to Italy to oversee the progress on the four new DeLorean models set to debut at the Pebble Beach Concours this August.

You read that right. Joost de Vries is planning to bring FOUR new models to the new DMC’s debut, and he’ll be using that platform to tell the secret, unknown history of DeLorean motor cars.

DeLorean Never Died

_{Image courtesy Onkhar H’s Behance, via Cleantechnica.}

No, that’s not the new DMC-12 up there. What little that’s been teased of that car can be seen in the featured image at the top of this page. That great-looking concept by Angel Guerra? That’s not the new DMC-12, either— but both of these concepts speak to the fact that DeLorean never died. Not really.

“If you go back to the original designers, they never stopped working on DeLorean,” explains de Vries. “They kept drawing DeLorean cars, all through the 90s and 2000s, and that is the story we will tell … (at Pebble Beach) you will see the 1990 DeLorean, and the 2000 DeLorean, and the 2010 DeLorean all the way to the 2023 DeLorean … it’s up to us now, to tell that story.”

ItalDesign Voyah i-Land Concept

For fans of the brand— who are legion— the thought that Giorgetto Giugiaro or Marcello Gandini simply couldn’t leave the gull-winged 80s icon alone, decades after the plug had been more-or-less pulled by scandal and bankruptcy, is … well, it’s really something. That de Vries is smart enough, that he cares enough to explicitly connect the dots of the new DMC’s evolution and honor that design DNA that has held up in a way that other designs of the era simply haven’t?

If you’re a Gen-X gearhead, just hearing the words is like manna from heaven. As such, we won’t keep you any longer. Check out the latest episode of the Electrify News Podcast, below, and listen to Jo Borras and Joost de Vries talk up your new favorite car company.

Electrify News Podcast

SHOW NOTES

You know about Tesla, but how much do you know about the Fisker-designed Karma that Joost helped bring to life? Check out one of the pioneers of modern-era EVs here.
We talk a bit about Spanish designer Angel Guerra and his gorgeous concept art. You can see it for yourself here.
In case you’ve never seen it, you can read up on the 1980s time-travel classic Back to the Future here, on the IMDb.
You can tell Jo’s excited in this one because some of his Spanish accent comes out when he talks about the new DeLorean’s “competitive set” around the 13:20 mark.
Joost de Vries doesn’t talk price, but the Porsche Taycan starts at $82,700 for a base Taycan and goes up to more than $187,000 for a fully loaded Porsche Taycan Turbo S Cross Turismo. You can expect the new DMC to slot in somewhere in there.
I talk about Warren Mosler and his Chevy-powered exotic cars a bit. You can learn more about that awesome 90s/00s era supercar here.
We talk a bit about how DeLorean would like to sell its cars in the post-Saturn era. Here’s a bit about why Saturn’s dealer model is important, and how it’s still shaping Toyota and Lexus dealerships more than three decades later.
We briefly touch on the Fisker Tramonto, which was a rebody on the R230 Mercedes SL chassis. You can see a bit about that car here.
Want to jump to the part about DeLorean being a full-line manufacturer? It starts about 22 minutes in and runs out to about the 28 minute mark. Enjoy!