DeLorean told city officials that it plans to hire 450 people by 2026. However, executives admit they’re far from reaching that goal.
This spring, DeLorean scaled back by more than half the number of cars it plans to deliver to the first round of customers who put down deposits for its first model. Some of those depositors now say they've been unable to reach company officials to get answers. "At first, they had a couple of working models, and I was fairly confident that they were going to do something," said Brackins, a Tampa restaurateur."It looks like a pretty good design and everything, but the radio silence is deafening."
NFTs emerged as a big deal in some investment circles during 2021 and 2022 — around the time of DeLorean's launch. Some people got rich quick by selling the online assets, which in many cases were marketed as works of"digital art." "Please be assured that your Build Slot is secure and that the reduced number of production units from 9,351 to 4,000 means that each NFT build slot has become more exclusive," the email said."By raising our pricing, you, our first holders of our build slots, will enjoy the benefits of that action."
De Vries continued:"By doing it the way we did, we believe that we have democratized access to the brand, and we'd love for people to either get the car eventually or speculate on the value of the production slots." In an email sent to Alpha 5 depositors on Feb. 3 of this year, DeLorean officials said the exchange"has been built and ready to go live last year." However, the company opted to postpone the launch"until the financial processes were flawless," the message added.
Adding to the confusion, depositors said, the company managing DeLorean's NFTs, New York-based NFT IQ, was listed as"temporarily closed" on its Google business listing until Sept. 22. DeLorean executive Wynne said he's aware that NFT IQ was listed as shut down on Google, adding that he reached out to the company about the situation.
Someone from DeLorean finally got back to Reed on Sept. 12, informing him that the business had credited back his $2,500, he said. Reed added that he'd still not received a refund as of press time on Monday, Oct. 2."I can tell you that we have responded to every communication that we have received," Marquart said."We will make sure, and we have been making sure that we have reached back out to every single person that has reached out to us to date.
Although the executives were tight-lipped about the production schedule for the Alpha 5, they continued to trumpet plans to work with Southwest Research Institute. While startups frequently run with lean staffing, DeLorean officials have publicly hinted at big hiring plans in the Alamo City. To secure that abatement, DeLorean told county officials in a document that the company plans to invest $590 million in personal property in the county, including $18 million put into the company's headquarters at Port San Antonio.
However, since the firm first announced its plans to produce the revamped sports car in San Antonio, experts have cautioned that such a project will be a heavy lift.