http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2011/10/18/electric-delorean-coming-in-2013/
This doesn’t appear to be a joke.
DeLorean Motor Company of Humble, TX has announced it will build an electric version of the “Back to the Future” car.
It’s teamed up with Flux Power Company of Escondido Ca. to make the batteries.
0-60 less than 8 seconds from a 200HP electric motor.
The current plans are to sell the car for $90,000
Allow me to be the first to ask…
does it run on a flux capacitor?
Yep, they’re the company that bought all the remaining inventory from DeLorean after it went out of business.
We can only hope…but they’re working with the Flux Power Co, so in a sense…
Yes! I’m positive there’ll be a capacitor in there somewhere.
Back to the Future, the Sequel!
Seriously, um…stainless steel? Isn’t that a wee bit heavy to be building an EV out of?
My prediction is it will be a colossal flop and I also wonder if this is just another case of someone playing the government grant/venture capital game.
The Tesla roadster is dead meat so I see no reason to expect a revamped DeLorean to be a success, especially one in which they “hope” to see a 100 miles between a recharge. Hope generally equals wishful thinking.
“My prediction is it will be a colossal flop…”
Just like the original!
They could retain the look and lighten it up if they’d make it from aluminum.
They’re making a new floor pan to lighten it up. Some.
“Seriously, um…stainless steel? Isn’t that a wee bit heavy to be building an EV out of?”
It would cost $190,000 if they used carbon fiber.
“They could retain the look and lighten it up if they’d make it from aluminum.”
Aluminum is a highly reactive metal. They would need some reliable way to protect it. Anodizing would work until it got scratched, then the white rust will start.
I have an aluminum trailer with nicks, scratches and dings…and no white rust anywhere. I would worry about someone leaning on the fender or any flat area with little support.
I’m too am amazed that Aluminum would be a problem…Air-Stream trailers built in the 50’s are still around today.
It depends on the environment. I suppose that a Delorean might not make it out of the garage all that much, but an industrial atmosphere will cause problems for aluminum that is not anodized properly. By this I mean where the anodic coating is abraded away. Maybe I’m overreacting, but if I spend cubic yards of disposable income on a car, I want the body to last for quite a while before it needs to be refurbished.
Maybe I’m overreacting, but if I spend cubic yards of disposable income on a car, I want the body to last for quite a while before it needs to be refurbished.
Ever see how much an Air-Stream trailer costs?? 2-3 times what a comparable trailer costs. There’s a HUGE used market for them also…many have had their interior restored to mint/new conditions…the body is just buffed to new condition.
Aluminum has long been used in numerous automotive applications. It continues as a body material in some high performance vehicles as a less costly alternative to carbon fiber. By proper selection of alloys and proper application of isolation and grounding galvanic corrosion is a nonissue totady. The problems have all been dealt with.
One onth enice thing about aluminum is it doesn’t rust like iron does. Aluminum oxide is extremely hard, and it doesn’t flake off like iron oxide. It resists propagating.
But using aluminum as a body requires a total redesign. The panel thickness will be different, requiring dimensional interface analysis along with tolerance buildup analysis, the material forms differently, requiring an analysis of whether the SS panels can even be reproduced in aluminum, the material strength is different, and panels that work fin ein SS may need to be redesigned in aluminum perhaps with bracing…
The bottom line is that an aluminum body would be a total redesign. Seems way too expensive.
Aluminum has long been used in numerous automotive applications. It continues as a body material in some high performance vehicles as a less costly alternative to carbon fiber.
On Pawn Stars…one time this guy brought in a original Shelby Cobra that he got from a Storage Unit…It was an all aluminum body (JUST THE BODY SHELL…NOTHING ELSE). It was estimated to be worth about $50k…They gave the guy $30k (I think)…Then proceeded to put another $100k into it to get it completely restored.
Now THAT was one beautiful vehicle. I wish I had disposable income like that…I’d have flown to Vegas and bought it.
Wow. Some folks have all the luck. I wonder if he got it from a “blind auction”, the kind where the total contents of storage units deemed abandoned are auctioned off to the highest bidder.