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DeLorean considering all-electric reboot

newdelorean.com

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Re: DeLorean considering all-electric reboot

#141

Post by acidburnNSA »

In Back to the Future, Marty asks: "Wait a minute Doc, are you telling me that this sucker is nuclear?!" after hearing that it needs plutonium.

Doc answers brilliantly: "Hey hey! keep rolling there! no no no no no this sucker is electrical! But I needed a nuclear reaction to generate the 1.21 gigawatts of electricity I need!"

Geez that's how nuclear power advocates should describe their "electrical generating stations"

Anyway, fun to hear that an electric version may come about. If it charges from a nuclear-heavy area it will indeed be as doc said.

Re: DeLorean considering all-electric reboot

#142

Post by rconti »

Daho0n wrote: post #45
perardi wrote: post #27

Some useful backstory on the government regulation to allow low-volume cars like this on the road: https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a34673012/where-is-the... And some history on DeLorean overall: https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a15352382/back-to-the-futu... …and it’s a pretty wild history.

Maybe I'm missing something or I'm too stupid to understand the article but I don't see why anyone should be allowed to sell a new car with old safety standards for road use? I'm not from the US so maybe it is yet "Another US Thing I Don't Understand" (sorry). Where I'm at (in Scandinavia) not only would this not be allowed on the roads but even if I buy an old car and want to upgrade it (modern brakes?) it wouldn't…

Not a giant loophole. A small loophole, for a low volume car. In fact, it's not really a loophole at all, it's the intent of the regulation.

Re: DeLorean considering all-electric reboot

#143

Post by caf »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #16
dogma1138 wrote: post #3

TBH I’m surprised Musk hasn’t bought them out yet and “released” a limited edition Model 3 with a DeLorian body kit for like $500,000... if Cyan can release a Volvo P1800 for 500K and you usually need to provide the 50 year old P1800 for them to convert and tune there clearly is a market for these things.

Tesla and DeLorean have common roots. The DeLorean was largely engineered by Lotus based on technology from the Lotus Esprit. The original Tesla Roadster was based on the Lotus Elise.

The DeLorean and the Cybertruck both have the stainless steel body, too.

Re: DeLorean considering all-electric reboot

#144

Post by mlindner »

madhadron wrote: post #19
elihu wrote: post #7

> National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has completed a regulation permitting low volume motor vehicle manufacturers to begin selling replica cars that resemble vehicles produced at least 25 years ago. Congress enacted a DeLorean Motor Company-backed bill backed by the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) DeLorean Motor Company, and others into law in 2015, which streamlined requirements for…

> I get the impression that electric motors are hard on transmissions. Rather, electric motors don't need transmissions. Transmissions are a workaround for the failings of the internal combustion engine.

That's not true. All EVs have transmissions. But most use a single speed transmission. It's still a transmission if there's only a single gear ratio. It's called a fixed-ratio transmission.

Re: DeLorean considering all-electric reboot

#146

Post by lifeisstillgood »

peterfield wrote: post #145

Why going "only" electric? The real innovative move is to go straight to nuclear fusion isn't it ?

The power output per old banana skin is not yet cost efficient. We have great hopes for the spin-off silver-visor tech however :-)

Re: DeLorean considering all-electric reboot

#147

Post by beatboxrevival »

Random piece of history - John DeLorean got his start creating snowcats when he purchased the Logan Machine Company (LMC) brand. He quickly renamed it to DMC, and continued to make snowcats at the same time he was making the DMC DeLorean. I have one of the LMC snowcats from the mid 80s and it's fantastic machine.

Re: DeLorean considering all-electric reboot

#149

Post by kindall »

detaro wrote: post #113
Armisael16 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They could even do a stickshift EV if they wanted to, though most car companies seem to not think it's worth the complexity/maintenance, and I get the impression that electric motors are hard on transmissions. Electric motors have a wider power band, so there’s less need for gear shifting. They could get more efficiency with multiple gears, but it’s be a smaller benefit than in an ICE vehicle. One of the big early…

I wouldn't be surprised if at some point some manufacturer made a car with optional "stick shift" - with a stick that's just some switches and the effect on driving behavior/torque/... entirely done in software. (Right now electric is hot and new, so nobody is doing much to make an electric car pretend to be something it's not, but that could switch around when electric is the standard)

Subaru CVTs already have essentially this feature. The transmission doesn't have gears (duh, it's continuously variable) but it still has the ability to manually shift to predefined ratios.

Re: DeLorean considering all-electric reboot

#150

Post by elihu »

jwalton wrote: post #133
elihu wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't expect stickshift EVs to be common either, but still I think it's surprising that no one has made a non-luxury-car EV that isn't direct drive. Manual transmissions seem like a pretty mature technology at this point. For any car company that already makes a manual transmission car it would be easy to do. They might change the design a little (maybe 3 speeds instead of 5, and use sturdier gears and different ra…

I have a friend who dropped a turbocharged engine out of an old 80s BMW into an RX-8. He ended up having to cut a hole in the firewall and completely redesigning the rack and pinion because the old rack would have gone through the middle of the larger BMW engine. He kept the original gearbox and was always worried the low revving high torque BMW engine was going to murder it. :P

Thankfully I don't have that problem. The Netgain motor is pretty big as motors go and it'll be close to the power steering unit, but still I think I've got enough room there.

Most of the work so far has been making battery boxes. I've got one under each rear seat where the gas tank used to be, one in the front down low where the radiator used to be, a smaller one above it, and another that goes over the motor (which raises the CG more than I'd like, but the other batteries that basically as low as they can be probably offset it). Weight balance should be about the same.

I'll have to do some welding on the back seats, because they're too low for the batteries to fit. Sacrificing about four inches of foam will make for an uncomfortable seat, but it should at least look normal.

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