This is heavy! DeLorean Motor Company (better known as DMC) has plans to not only refresh its classic DMC-12, but to also make the car all electric! We’re hoping you don’t need 1.21 Jigawatts to charge its lithium-ion batteries.

Coming soon, the vehicle best known as Doc Brown’s stainless steel time machine in Back To The Future (as well as Part II, and that awkward western/steam powered time traveling train Part III film) – DMC announced plans at their Texas Open House earlier this week. They are working along side start-up Epic EV to have an all-electric DMC-12 by 2013, two years before the Cubs win the World Series.

Early reports state DeLorean EV will have a top speed of 125 mph, and offer upwards of 260 horsepower. DMC is claiming a price tag of $90,000 – 100,000, meaning this Electric Delorean will be even more of a niche vehicle than its predecessor. The original Delorean included a rear-mounted engine, so we’re assuming this yet to be produced electric motor will also have a home in the rear, along with battery packs and Mr. Fusion. The signature gullwing doors will remain, it wouldn’t be a DeLorean with ‘em!

Source: Autoblog

Europe, yes I mean all of Europe, hopes to have a completely EV automotive infrastructure set up by the year 2017 – two years after the release of Jaws 19. The European Automobile Manufacturer’s Association has agreed on a set of standards for the plugs and sockets needed to recharge electric vehicles. The unified standard will allow Europe to more quickly develop an infrastructure capable of handling the vehicles, with several all-electric models scheduled to come to market over the next few years.

The organization, also known by the abbreviation ACEA for its French name, counts many of the world’s largest automakers amongst its membership. BMW, Daimler, Fiat, Jaguar Land Rover, Porsche, PSA Peugeot Citroen, Renault, Volkswagen and Volvo are all part of the group. The European divisions of Ford, General Motors and Toyota are also members, as well as several commercial vehicle manufacturers.

“We want to avoid a situation where customers have to carry a multitude of charging cables to use their vehicles in different cities, regions and countries, just as we see today with items like mobile phones,” said ACEA Secretary General Ivan Hodac in a statement to Automotive News.

-Source, WCF

DeLorean Motor Company – now tucked away in the landscape of Crystal Lake, IL – has come a long way from cocaine scandals and Back to the Future trilogies. As a rebirth it’s quite an interesting tale: you can buy yourself a “brand new” DMC-12 made from parts of the 1981-82 model left over after the company went belly-up. It’s a classic love affair of car and geek…and we love how she looks today.

Perfect for the Blacksploitation version of Back to the Future, this double-vinyl covered DMC-12 by SoCal streetwear crew The Hundreds is a perfect gift for the car lover who has everything.

This Black to the Future DeLorean DMC-12 was wrapped in not one but two layers of black vinyl: first a flat finish, then gloss, in order to to create the stripe effect. Vinyl is a good choice – seeing as the stainless steel body of your average DMC (which, as Doc Brown told us, is great for time travel) causes paint to not stick around very long.

As a promotional tool, this DMC will be a great tax write-off. We just hope Biff doesn’t get his hands on it, or that sports almanac again. Watch out for manure fellas.

The Source & More Pictures: TheHundreds

In the summer of 1959, that’s fifty years ago, Sir Christopher Cockerell gave his first public demonstration of the hovercraft. This top-secret ship, called SR-N1, took it’s first journey on the Thames at Westminster, UK. As years past, hovercrafts evolved into military vehicles, pleasures-crafts, toys and have been mistaken for alien vessels or “flying saucers.” The hovercraft has made its way into TV series, onto film and in countless fiction novels. According to Wikipedia: A hovercraft (air-cushion vehicle, ACV) is a craft capable of traveling over relatively smooth surfaces supported by a cushion of slow moving, high-pressure air, ejected against the surface below, and contained within a “skirt.” Whatever the definition, they’re still amazingly fast, and extremely cool looking vehicles. Happy Birthday, Hover.

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Via: BoingBoing

John DeLorean, the man responsible for Pontiac GTO and the Gull Wing Doored 1981 “DMC” Delorean, will have his life made into a feature film. No word yet on who will portray the automotive icon and deceased coke dealer, we’re keeping our fingers crossed for Christopher Lloyd.

DeLorean’s life certainly has movie qualities to it, claims thecarconnection blog The executive, who posed shirtless and lifting weights for Fortune magazine in his 40s, got the UK government to subsidize his factory in Belfast, Northern Ireland, to the tune of tens of millions of pounds. When the DeLorean Motor Company ran into financial troubles, he was arrested for drug trafficking by the FBI. Though he was ultimately acquitted on the grounds of entrapment, his reputation was ruined and the company collapsed into bankruptcy.

Producers of the film have secured rights from DeLorean’s son Zachary, who is also the executor of his estate, as well as DeLorean’s unpublished memoirs, various magazine articles about him, and the book Grand Delusions by author Hillel Levin. DeLorean’s dream of founding the first successful US car company in half a century, says the film’s director Alex Holmes with a fair degree of hyperbole, “brought him head-to-head with both the British and American establishment and they destroyed him.” Holmes calls the story “a crime thriller with such a great tragic hero at its heart.”

The University of South Hampton has created a vehicle that would make Doc Brown and his time-traveling locomotive jealous. This completely recycled steam powered car has been constructed by graduate students out of salvaged parts. Not only is it a reduce-reuse vehicle, but the whole car runs on steam!

So what do you do with a slick car made from other people’s garbage and powered on steam? You race it of course! It has a 13,000 RPM engine, and this steamer can pump out over 360 horse power. So far, the vehicle has achieved a top speed of 170 MPH thanks to a generation of 3 megawatts of heat transformed from burning liquid gas. The steam valves used in the racer are from an old power station, and its water pumps were taken off a trashed firetruck. How about the heating elements? They were saved from busted tea kettles. Those crazy Brits, always all about the tea time.

The car will soon set out to break the 1906 record for fastest steam powered vehicle.