Digital rendering of the DeLorean Alpha5.
Courtesy: DeLorean Motor Company
An Italian automobile design company has asked a federal judge in Houston to enforce a $4.6 million judgment against Humble-based DeLorean Motor Co. over claims it and a San Antonio-based partner failed to pay for work done to reimagine the famed car as an electric vehicle called Alpha5.
The firm, Italdesign Giugiaro S.p.A., received the judgment in its favor from an international arbitration court last year and, on Jan. 2, filed a complaint in U.S. District Court for the Southern District, asking Judge Keith P. Ellison to confirm the decision and have it enforced.
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The lawsuit seeks payment from DeLorean Motor Co., which has owned DeLorean’s name since the 1990s and has operated mostly as a repair shop for the classic cars. The lawsuit doesn’t name DeLorean Reimagined LLC, the company based in San Antonio that advertised itself as the business behind the new Alpha5 model.
FROM 2022: DeLorean rolls out prototype of its Alpha5 electric vehicle at Pebble Beach auto show
Joost de Vries, the onetime CEO of DeLorean Reimagined, and Stephen Wynne, the founder of DeLorean Motor Co., were both involved in the litigation in Europe, according to public records and the arbitrator’s report.
Representatives for Italdesign and DeLorean didn’t respond to a request for comment. DeLorean hadn’t filed a response to the claim as of Monday. An initial conference has been scheduled for April.
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Italdesign was hired in 2022 to design an electric version of the car made famous in the “Back to the Future” movies.
In news releases announcing the partnership, the companies said the new four-seat sports car, the Alpha5, would feature the brand’s iconic gull-wing doors and be able to reach speeds of 155 mph.
The DeLorean Alpha5 electric vehicle (EV) displayed during the 2022 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in Pebble Beach, California, US, on Saturday, Aug. 20, 2022. Since 1950, the annual Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance has hosted the worlds most beautiful and expensive collectible cars for a week of lavish parties, blue-chip auctions, glamorous rallies, and exclusive high-roller meetings. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
The Alpha5 was supposed to mark a rebirth for the company. Executives made appearances around San Antonio, hinted at the creation of a Texas-based factory and teased the car in a 15-second Super Bowl commercial.
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Italdesign’s founder, Giorgetto Giugiaro, designed the iconic DeLorean DMC-12 in the 1970s. The Alpha5’s sleeker design was said to be based on a concept for a model the original DeLorean Motor Co. had before going bankrupt in 1982.
A DeLorean concept car was showcased in 2022 by the San Antonio company at a car show in Pebble Beach, Calif. Despite claims the car would be in production by 2023, a final model and official pricing have not been announced.
Filings included in the design company’s complaint show that the dispute over payments began months after the public announcement of the new design.
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The company said it was hired to create scale models, show cars and styling models, to conduct pre-concept development and provide event support, according to the lawsuit.
In July 2022, the design company billed DeLorean 4.3 million euros for the concept models revealed at the California car show. DeLorean made an initial payment of $500,000, according to the arbitrator’s report, which was included in court records. In September, de Vries emailed the firm promising full payment by October.
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The promises continued for months after that deadline, according to the report. In December 2022, de Vries wrote that he was hoping to receive good news regarding an investment. In February 2023, he reported that the company received “a couple of hundred thousand.”
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“Not enough to make a meaningful payment against our debt,” he wrote.
The DeLorean Alpha5 Electric Vehicle at the 2022 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in Pebble Beach, California, US, on Saturday, Aug. 20, 2022. Since 1950, the annual Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance has hosted the worlds most beautiful and expensive collectible cars for a week of lavish parties, blue-chip auctions, glamorous rallies, and exclusive high-roller meetings. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
A week later, he promised Italdesign that “big checks” were coming. They apparently never did. Italdesign took the motor company to court in early 2023. During the yearslong process, DeLorean argued that it had never admitted to the debt “in full” and claimed it was unable to find documents related to its debts, according to the report.
The car company’s arguments failed. The arbitrator in April 2025 decided in Italdesign’s favor, writing that the firm is the “undoubted victor” and “certain winner” under the law. DeLorean was ordered to pay its debts, along with interest.
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It’s unclear if DeLorean has taken any steps to pay the company since last year’s decision.
The dispute over payments came amid other public struggles for DeLorean. In the years since the Alpha5’s announcement, the company scaled back its promises on how many cars it would initially build and was criticized for not updating customers who had made deposits for the Alpha5. In a sign of the times, early buyers were given NFTs, or nonfungible tokens, as their proof of purchase, rather than a receipt.
De Vries stepped down as CEO in October 2023. By the end of that year, it was giving up its city and county tax breaks.
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In April 2024, the company closed its offices at Port San Antonio — which once had touted the company as the name tenant for a planned high-tech tower — and moved to an office downtown. The company’s new CEO said then it planned to be a niche automobile maker, rather than a competitor to Tesla Inc. and other larger companies.
Since then, there have been no public updates on development of the Alpha5.