Today, the DeLorean Motor Company announced that they’ll be producing cars after a 34-year hiatus.
Chances are you’re very familiar with DeLorean and their famous DMC-12, which was the vehicle of choice for Doc Brown and Marty McFly in “Back to the Future”. Unfortunately, the DMC-12 wasn’t around for much longer after the movies were released. This was a shame for us and for the legendary John DeLorean.
And for multiple years, DeLorean has been subjected to the same regulations that major manufacturers are. This stalled the companies comeback.
But, it seems as though the manufacturer of the famous stainless steel, gull-winged sports car lucked out. According to DeLorean.com:
In December 2015, the language from the “Low Volume Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Act” (H.R. 2675) – which creates a reasonable regulatory structure allowing small companies to produce a limited number of completed replica motor vehicles that resemble the appearance of cars produced 25 years ago or more. – was inserted to the federal highway bill (H.R. 22) and signed into law.
The new law provides common-sense regulatory relief for small businesses that would otherwise be treated as if they were producing millions of cars. The companies are required to register with NHTSA and EPA, and file annual production reports. The replica vehicles will be subject to equipment standards, recalls and remedies.
This means that they can produce a car as long as their vehicles meet the “current Clean Air Act standards for the model year in which they are produced”, which can now be done by simply installing an engine built by another manufacturer. Another route they can take is to create an engine and have a California Air Resources Board (CARB) Executive Order (EO) granted for the engine.
That being said, DeLorean will go forward with finding a new supplier for engines and they plan on starting up production on the car in 2017. Price and production numbers are still in the air, but we can assume that they’ll be around $100,000, with a production number close to 300.
DeLoreans For Sale
John DeLorean and his creation (Source: Facebook/Delorean Motor Company)
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