Bexar County ends tax break agreement with DeLorean
Company’s CEO requested that the deal be terminated
SAN ANTONIO — DeLorean Motor Co. Inc.’s deal to receive tax breaks in exchange for creating 450 local jobs in five years was terminated Tuesday in a unanimous vote by the Bexar County Commissioner’s Court.
The 5-0 vote came as part of the commissioner’s approval of the consent agenda, which grouped multiple actions together. The commissioners did not discuss DeLorean during the meeting.
DeLorean Chief Operating
Officer Bill Frazer asked the county to terminate its tax abatement agreement, which offered up to roughly $1 million in tax breaks and incentives with the city and county in exchange for creating 450 jobs paying at least $70,000 by 2026. Frazer wrote in a letter to the county dated Dec. 1 that the decision was “prompted by a shift in the economic landscape and a strategic redirection of our business, which leads us to forgo pursuing the incentives at this time.”
In public records, the county wrote that while the company’s office would remain at Port San Antonio, no tax abatements had been given to the company. The agreement had been signed in October 2022. DeLorean was expected to have created at least 100 new jobs by now to manufacture an electric vehicle based off the iconic 1980s car made famous in the “Back to the Future” films.
The San Antonio-based company’s pullback from employment commitments is the latest development suggesting that the company’s progress has not met expectations, which has customers who paid thousands of dollars to reserve one of the vehicles questioning whether their cars will ever be built.
The company confirmed last month that its CEO had stepped down in the fall and said that customers would get more information about manufacturing plans early in the new year.