BTTF is 40. We celebrate1.21GW and the power of tomorrow, today.

As 2025 marks 40 years since the world’s best-loved EV first hit the silver screen, it seems fitting given our work in EV charging, to mark it.  As we’re on both sides of the EV charging equation: the hardware and the power to feed it, what better way than to explore what 1.21 Gigawatts – the amount of power required for one journey Back to the Future – represents in real terms.   

1.21 Gigawatts also known as 1210 Megawatts or 1210000 Kilowatts would be enough electricity to run:

• Marty McFly’s School, Hill Valley High, for around 27 years
• Lou’s Café, Marty’s local diner for around 60 years
• Twin Pines Mall, scene of the initial time travelling experiment, for around 6 months.  (It should be mentioned that at 1.3 million square feet, Puente Hills Mall as it is in real life, is unusually large.  For an average sized US shopping mall the number would be around 6 years)
• Around 237,255 cinema screenings of the film back in 1985.

Closer to home, 1.21 Gigawatts will:

• Charge an eHGV 2017 times
• Power 4000 UK homes for1 month
• Power 5 UK Hospitals for 12 months- or 1 UK Hospital for 5 years- whichever you prefer
• Charge an electric ferry around 200 times (typical example- Brittany Ferries LNG Electric Hybrid)

And it would cost:

• If wind-generated, and it had to be curtailed or taken off the Grid for fear of overloading, it would cost approximately £160K.  For comparison, while we’re on the subject of curtailment, 1.21 Gigawatts is around a 70^th of the power Storm Floris would have generated if the UK’s Grid infrastructure had been able to harness it.

And for lovers of film trivia:   

• The writers originally intended the time traveling car to have a name- “Outatime” but the idea was dropped at the final scriptwriting stage.  None the less, the car still wears the registration plate OUTATIME in the films.  It has been suggested that Outatime is a reference to the famously early demise of the DeLorean car on which the time machine is based, rather than time travel itself.

Who Knew? DeLorean. The truth really is stranger than fiction:

Back in 1985 the DeLorean car (or DMC 12 to give it its proper name) was something of a global joke. Conceived by maverick American car designer John DeLorean, it was manufactured in- of all places- Belfast by a largely inexperienced workforce, with funding given to him by a naively optimistic British Government, who were convinced that the project would- in just a few years- solve the many years of Irish Sectarian Troubles, slash unemployment in Belfast and make a fortune in sales to the lucrative US market.  What could possibly go wrong?

Launched amid great fanfare, the woeful build quality and shockingly disappointing performance (the fabled 88mph would have presented quite a struggle for it in reality) and complete lack of badge kudos for a car priced the same as a Porsche 911, meant nobody in their right mind wanted one.  Unsurprisingly the DeLorean Motor Company collapsed spectacularly after a very short production run.

But the story doesn’t end there. Desperate to raise money to revive his brainchild, DeLorean got involved in what appeared to be a highly lucrative cocaine trafficking deal.  Unfortunately (for him) it was a set up by the FBI.  At his subsequent trial, his jaw droppingly outrageous defence- he claimed to have known from the start it was an FBI sting and had been playing along to expose their underhand practices – was accepted by the jury and to everybody’s amazement (not least DeLorean’s own) he was acquitted.

Accounts vary as to how much taxpayers’ money the British Government lost in the DeLorean debacle, but it’s thought to be around £150 million in today’s terms.

The few DeLorean cars built remained cheap and unwanted for many years, but the cult status acquired by the films rubbed off and today they are valuable and highly prized by car collectors and movie fans alike.   

If you want to talk more about Back to the Future, or our own take one it- the Power of Tomorrow Today and how we will support your electrification journey please drop us a line

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