Belfast students build electric DeLorean

Belfast students have built a DeLorean that runs on electricity. The undergraduates at Queen’s University in Belfast modified the DMC-12 and unveiled it on ‘Back to the Future’ day, 21 October.

The car is the first DMC-12 to be built in Northern Ireland since the factory closed its doors in 1983. Students and staff from Queen’s School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, supported by NIE Networks, painstakingly restored and modified the car over the past 18 months.

Project leader Dr David Laverty said, ‘In the future, more and more of our energy will come from renewable electricity – whether to power appliances in the home or our means of travel.

‘The electrification of transport is a major global challenge, so projects like the Queen’s Electric DeLorean are crucial in equipping young engineers with the knowledge and expertise to build the electric vehicles of the future.

‘This project was about modifying a car into an electric vehicle, but we wanted to do it in style. The DeLorean was the obvious choice because of its strong connection to Belfast and its starring role in the Back to The Future movies.

For more information visit QUB Electric Delorean on Facebook or follow @QUBDeLorean on Twitter. To discover more about electrical engineering at Queen’s, visit www.qub.ac.uk/schools/eeecs