DeLorean looks back on non-existent past

The DeLorean Motor Company as you know it from the Alpha5 presented this year is not a direct continuation of the original DeLorean Motor Company, which went bust in 1982. Officially, the current DeLorean is therefore called DeLorean Motors Reimagined, although the company profiles itself as a direct descendant of the company that launched the DMC-12, which became known through the Back to the Future films, among other things. DeLorean Motors Reimagined was founded in 1995 and was initially a company where you could have your old DMC-12 serviced. That ‘new’ DeLorean will produce its first DMC-12-inspired electric car in the form of the Alpha5, and through an extensive series of sketches and computer drawings, the company looks back on a past it never had.

DeLorean DMC-24

DeLorean Motors Reimagined envisions a past where the original DeLorean never went bankrupt, filling the period between 1982 and 2022 with a slew of cars. The first car to show the new DeLorean is the DMC-24, but that is not his own creation at all. That DMC-24 is in fact a four-seat brother for the DMC-12 devised by the original DMC with two intense gull-wing doors on each side. The DMC-24, drawn by ItalDesign, receives remarkably little attention in the fictitious past of the new DeLorean.

DeLorean Alpha 2 (1996)

Alpha2 (1996)

The first ‘own’ car that the new DeLorean had foreseen for its non-existent past is the Alpha2. In DeLorean’s imaginary timeline, in 1993 it presents a first design sketch (photos 9 and 10) of a car that would eventually dry up as a roadster that comes on the market in 1996 (photos 11 to 15). Incidentally, the car looks remarkably few ‘nineties’ for a sports car that will appear on the market in the mid-nineties. On the back you will find – just like on the DMC-12 – lighting that is made up of a whole series of pixel-like segments.

DeLorean Alpha3 (2006)

Alpha3 (2006)

Then DeLorean makes himself heard again in 2006. In that fictitious DeLorean year, the company pulls the curtain on the Alpha3, the company’s first fully electric car (photos 18 to 22). The Alpha3 would be a luxurious and stretched model with four gullwing doors, of which the company would have a more sedan-like version in sketch form on the drawing boards in 2003 (photos 16 and 17).

DeLorean Alpha4 (2013)

Alpha4 (2013)

2013 should have been the year DeLorean releases an electric SUV (Photos 28 to 32) with gullwing doors that begins its life on the drawing board as a modular pickup (Photos 23 to 27). The Alpha4 is not just an EV, but an electric SUV with a fuel cell on board. The Alpha4 has room for seven to eight passengers.

DeLorean Alpha

Alpha 5 (2022)

Then there’s the Alpha5. It was already presented this year, but DeLorean shows a set of design sketches of that car of how the car could have dried up (photos 33 to 42).

DeLorean seems to like to credit himself with foresight. It was early in its fictional past with electric models and even a hydrogen car. Officially, the above says very little about the future of the new DeLorean, although it does provide some fun viewing. Which one is your favourite?