New Electric DeLorean To Be Available In 2013

1985 was the year that everyone wanted a DeLorean.  "Back To The Future" made the sports car one of the most popular movie vehicles of all time. Unfortunately, the car hadn't been in production for 3 years.   Over the years, demand for the car has died out, but might be on the road to a comeback by 2013.

The DeLorean Motor Co. of Humble, TX still makes and distributes replacements parts as well as occassionally  filling customer orders of complete cars, but now they've set their sights on a new line of DeLoreans... electric.

James Espey, VP at DeLorean, made the announcement to his employees saying,

"The car of the future has really become the car of the future,"

Espey's company has already taken a DeLorean and switched out the engine to see if the classic frame could support the electric motor.  With the engine in the rear and the batteries in the front, Espey found the car to balance very well.  After fine-tuning, Espey estimates the new DeLorean to reach 260 hp, be able to hit 125 mph, and have a range of at least 70 miles on a single charge.

The original DeLorean only had 9,000 produced before the company went under in 1982.  Espey believes roughtly 7,500 of those still exist.  The company was bought and revived in 1995 and has since made 8 to 10 cars a year by custom order asta price of $57,500.  Though they are not officially taking orders until they are certain of the car's design and feasibility, customers have already offered to make a deposit on the $90,000 vehicle.

As the original DeLorean was only in production for 3 years, Espey isn't worried about the design of the car being considered retro or out-of-date,

They didn't have time to make a lot of changes. So there's nothing to make you say, 'Oh, that's an old DeLorean,' or, 'This is a new one.' It still has a timeless design."

via ABC News