ELECTRIFYING NEW DELOREAN

ALMOST 40 years after the BacktotheFuture movie trilogy that made it famous, the DeLorean name returns.

Gone is the petrol engine and wedgy styling of Doc Brown's original, with the new Alpha 5 concept featuring an electric motor, gullwing doors and a curvy body.

Sadly, there's no flux capacitor or Mr Fusion home energy reactor.

Its powerplant thrusts it to 100km/h in 2.9 seconds and a top speed of 250km/h, with a range of up to 480 kilometres.

According to DeLorean CEO Joost de Vries, the Alpha 5 concept penned by ItalDesign, “Is a car for people that love to drive.” ItalDesign also designed the original DMC 12 and the Alpha 5 features 80s touches like the horizontal LED headlights and taillights, turbine-look alloys and a louvre rear window cover.

Built around a carbon fibre tub the Alpha5 has a very low drag coefficient of just 0.23. The minimalist cockpit has four white textile bucket seats a digital instrument cluster, floating touchscreen infotainment arrangement, a separate climate-control panel and two-tier floating console.

“There was this enormous responsibility to make sure we honoured the history of the DeLorean brand, but an even greater responsibility in curating its future. I think we did both with the Alpha5,” said DeLorean chief marketing officer, Tony Beetz.

The model will be produced in Italy with driveline components sourced from the UK. Only 88 examples will be produced, or approximately 8900 fewer than DMC-12's total production number – however DeLorean says an electric sedan and a hydrogen-powered SUV are planned… sometime in the future.

“We have been given the opportunity to reimagine a brand that has meant so much to so many people from all corners of the globe, for four decades,” said DeLorean vice president of brand and creative, Neilo Harris.

“DeLorean has touched so many lives and set the stage for so many memories. We are all now witnessing a new chapter of this amazing story.”