The new DeLorean Alpha5 looks nothing like the original DeLorean DMC-12. The gullwing doors, classic rear louvers, and signature three-layered taillights are the only elements that tie the new car to the one that Doc and Marty McFly drove Back To The Future. While the design of the new Alpha5 might upset some hardcore fans of the old DMC-12, it’s a necessary departure from the domain of nostalgia, which the new company didn’t want to keep as the main driver for its new offering. To bring the DeLorean into the present, it had first to unstick it from the past.

With the help of Italdesign, DeLorean Motors presented a series of “never pursued” concepts that imagine how the brand and its design would have evolved over the last four decades had the original DeLorean stayed in business.

“Our goal was to bridge the gap between the past and the future, so we produced extensions of the DMC-12 that would have been icons in their time to create the next generation of vehicles, starting with the Alpha5,” said Joost de Vries, chief executive officer of DeLorean Motors Reimagined.

The first concept, the DMC-24 from 1981, is a real one. The car was supposed to be a successor to the DMC-12. Italdesign even produced a show dummy of the vehicle, but the project died when DeLorean went under in 1982. In a parallel design universe, DeLorean would have come up with the Alpha2 sports car in 1993, a two-seater with a “barchetta” flair. Thirteen years after that, DeLorean would have jumped back into the future with the Alpha3 in 2006 and then with an unexpected SUV, the Alpha4, in 2013. A long (imaginary) history of design, leading to the new all-electric 2022 Alpha5, unveiled earlier this year and then shown in prototype form at the Monterey Car Week in late August.

According to the official specs, the Alpha5 aims at a 300 miles range, will accelerate from 0 to 100Km/h in under three seconds, and has a top speed of about 155 Mph. So far, DeLorean Motors didn’t share any further details, except for an estimated 2024 release date.