HUMBLE, Texas — The company with a time machine is still waiting for a day that hasn’t come.
“It has been a 30-year, three-decade rollercoaster of ups and downs,” said DeLorean Motor Company CEO Stephen Wynne. “2019 for DMC is hopefully going to be a big year. We’ve been saying this, unfortunately, for the past three years. Our hands are tied while we’re waiting for the final guidelines to be published by NHTSA.”
In 1995, Wynne started a new company with the DeLorean Motor name, and he purchased the parts, logo, blueprints and intellectual property of the original company. Then Wynne named Humble, Texas, his new headquarters.
The original automaker was formed in 1975 by John DeLorean and was made famous by its one model, Delorean DMC-12, with gull-wing doors. The company went bankrupt in 1982, despite John DeLorean’s attempt to save it with money from drug trafficking. The suspect transaction was caught on film, but DeLorean was acquitted of the charges.
In 2015, Congress passed the FAST Act. The act allowed “low-volume manufactures” to produce up to 325 replica cars a year without requiring the vehicle to be subjected to today’s safety standards.
“Initially, we’d like to produce 20, 25 cars the first year,” Wynne said. “Then ramp it up to 50 and then hover around 100 cars per year and let the market dictate how it goes.”
Wynne has been sitting on that plan for three years.
“2019 for DMC is hopefully going to be a big year. We’ve been saying this unfortunately for the past three years. Our hands are tied while we’re waiting for the final guidelines to be published by NHTSA," Wynne said.
Initially, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had 12 months to issues specific regulations about low-volume manufacturers. That did not happen and has left small automakers like DeLorean in limbo. Wynne is optimistic the FAST Act guidance will come this year; however, it will take DeLorean at least 12 months to turn their Humble warehouse into a production floor.