Is one of these the McLaren supercar of tomorrow?

McLaren has picked the winners of a student design competition held in association with the prestigious Istituto Europeo di Design. The project involved a total of 39 students subdivided in 14 groups which then completed their work as a team, each producing a 1:4 scale model. Three models were awarded first, second and third prizes. In third, was ‘MP11' a very aggressive-looking car that was true to the engineering package in the brief. The runner-up, 'Manta', took a strikingly different direction to any other. 'M Eleven B' (pictured) took overall honours with first place, representing the best interpretation of a future McLaren road car.

The entry-level McLaren P13 sports car, to be unveiled at the 2015 Geneva Auto Show, will go on sale in fall 2015 with a price tag of $210,000, Edmunds has learned.

Its main rivals will be the Porsche 911 Turbo S and GT3, Audi R8 V10 and Ferrari California.

The P13 — the production model will get a different name — will be much the same size as the new McLaren 650S. Like the 650S, the P13 will be a midengine two-seater and, because it uses a modified version of the pricier car's carbon-fiber body, will be similarly sized.

But according to McLaren Managing Director Mike Flewitt, it will be more practical.

"It's got to be usable, with easy ingress and egress and good storage on board," he said.

The P13 won't look vastly different from the 650S because it shares the same midengine, two-seater layout. Flewitt said that "it's difficult to style midengine cars to look different, not least for cooling reasons; side-mounted radiators dictate a lot of style."

Of its character, Flewitt said that "P13 will be a very engaging car to drive. It will be fun but safe," and its handling unintimidating.

The car will feature a detuned version of the 650S's 3.8-liter twin-turbo V8, and should accelerate from zero to 62 mph in around 4.0 seconds, about a second slower than the 650S, with a top speed of 185 mph rather than 207 mph.

In 2017, the P13 will be joined by the P15, which sits above the 650S at $500,000-600,000.
This car "is not a replacement for the P1," said Flewitt of the current McLaren flagship supercar.

Instead, the P1's follow-up "needs to be a technical step-change — it could be 10 years away," he said.

McLaren Automotive itself will have progressed in 10 years to a company making 4,000-6000 cars, Flewitt said, and "all models will be hybrids, even if some use a basic form of hybridization."

Flewitt also expects to see some engine downsizing: "We will offer two or three mainstream cars, plus some specialty models — something like the P1 or perhaps even a full-electric car."

An SUV is not on the agenda: "We have no technology or platform suitable for an SUV, and it's not what McLaren is about. Never say never, but it's not in the thoughts of the management or the shareholders. We are a sports car maker."

Right now, Flewitt's major goal is raising worldwide awareness of McLaren's road cars, so that they appear more readily on potential buyers' shopping lists.

"We're not in the same league as Ferrari or Porsche in terms of recognition for road cars, but we're still a very young company," he said. "We have only been making them for three years and we're making very good progress."

Despite the company's relative newness as a road-car maker, McLarens are selling well in the U.S., which is now the automaker's largest market. Flewitt attributes the willingness of American buyers to try something new as part of the reason for this success.

McLaren has announced a global premiere for the 2014 Goodwood Festival of Speed taking place this month and has released this teaser image to whet our appetite. The global premiere will be a new track-focused version of one of McLaren’s supercars, developed by the automaker’s McLaren GT motorsport offshoot.

Rather than the highly-anticipated P1 GTR that was recently confirmed by McLaren, the global premiere is more likely to be a new 650S-based race car to replace the 12C GT3 or possibly a track-focused version of the 650S similar to the previous 12C GT Sprint. If you look carefully at the teaser, the design of the side intakes is more like the one on the 650S than on the P1.

The new car will be revealed on June 27 at the 2014 Goodwood Festival of Speed, where McLaren Formula One driver Jenson Button will drive it up the event’s famous hill climb.

McLaren will also have its full collection of cars on show as well as some race cars from its past, including an M7C F1 race car driven by McLaren founder Bruce McLaren. In addition to this, there will be a 650S unveiled that has been worked over by the men and women at the McLaren Special Operations personalization department.

This year’s festival is once again taking place on the grounds of Goodwood House in the U.K., and runs from June 26-29. For more from the event, head to our dedicated hub.

If you already own or are thinking of getting a McLaren but are jealous of all the personalization options Ferrari offers its customers, you no longer have to look on with envy as the British firm’s own personalization department, McLaren Special Operations (MSO), has just been significantly expanded.

There are now five specific levels of personalization programs that offer upgrades ranging from minor body mods right up to dedicated client racing programs like that involving the upcoming P1 GTR track car. The five levels in ascending order are: MSO Defined, MSO Bespoke, MSO Heritage, MSO Limited and MSO Programs.

MSO Defined: This program is ideal for those buyers new to the world of vehicle personalization. Key modifications here include the installation of items such as aero kits and replacement components made out of carbon fiber, such as for the rear diffuser, side mirror stands and dash elements.

MSO Bespoke: Those with more ambitious modifications in mind should sign up for the MSO Bespoke program, which provides an almost unlimited level of personalization to McLaren owners. Options can be as simple as unique paint or leather trims or rise up to be as complex as one-off vehicles. Let’s just hope we don’t see anything as silly as 2012’s X-1 anytime soon.

MSO Limited: As its name suggests, the MSO Limited program is tasked with creating limited-run and special edition examples of existing McLaren products. A prime example is the McLaren 50 12C which marked the brand’s 50th anniversary.

MSO Heritage: This program is actually an evolution of the original McLaren Customer Care Program launched in the 1990s to cater to owners of McLaren’s first road car, the F1. MSO Heritage looks after owners of McLaren models no longer in production, such as the F1 as well as the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren and more recent 12C.

MSO Programs: Finally, the recently-launched MSO Programs division encompasses the upcoming P1 GTR track special and all related services, such as driver training, vehicle transport and maintenance, and the organizing of track day events around the globe.

Like any good racing team, the road-going side of McLaren has thrown down a gauntlet for its major competitors, including Porsche and Aston Martin, declaring a complete lack of any need for an SUV to generate profits.

In fact, the brand can exist solely on the sales of rather high-end supercars; after all its upcoming “entry level” Sports Series cars will still likely be priced in excess of $150,000, minimum.

But as McLaren Automotive CEO Mike Flewitt told Automotive News (subscription required), his company’s business plan is smart enough to negate the need for a brand-diluting SUV.

Instead, Flewitt says, profitability is based around three core concepts: spreading sales evenly across the North American, European, and Asian markets; controlling costs; and quickly iterating new models to keep customers’ interest.

The result, according to Flewitt, is a brand that can self-sustain on very focused, high-performance cars, without the need for a volume-selling vehicle to beef up the bottom line.

Of course, with just a handful of years in existence, McLaren Automotive may yet find it needs that financial crutch—or it may prove its brilliance.

McLaren only has one hybrid in its lineup, the flagship P1, but its CEO Mike Flewitt believes there’ll be many more introduced over the next decade as the cost and weight of the technology are further reduced. In fact, the CEO is so bullish on hybrid tech that he hopes to have at least 50 percent of McLaren’s lineup go the hybrid route in less than 10 years.

“I have said in 10 years I expect half of our cars to be hybrids but I actually think it will be faster,” Flewitt told British publication Auto Express. “Will we put that on all vehicles? If I could get the cost and weight right I absolutely would.”

One of the new hybrid models, Flewitt revealed, could be a supercar filling the void between the 657LT and P1, and forming part of the exclusive Ultimate Series (currently P1 and P1 GTR only). It will be priced from about £400,000 (approximately $630,000) and feature a “different focus” to the P1. The car is currently referred to internally as the P15.

But before the P15 is launched, McLaren has plans to expand its entry-level Sports Series range. We’ve already seen the 540C and 570S coupes, and next year we’re likely to see a new, more practical (think extra storage) bodystyle introduced. A convertible is also planned but isn’t due until 2017.

McLaren’s boss Mike Flewitt said at the Geneva show the new three-seater, the BP23, will be the fastest McLaren ever. And the most powerful road McLaren ever. But it’s not a successor for the F1.

He told Top Gear he is being very careful about that ‘fastest’ claim too. The F1 famously did 240mph. “But there are many definitions of fastest,” he said. “Could be fastest from 100-200mph… it is very powerful and has very low drag.” The perfect equation for high speed.

‘Very’ powerful? Unimaginably so. Both the V8 engine and the hybrid system will be more powerful than the P1’s. And when pulling together, they were 903bhp.

“The BP23 won’t be the fastest round a track. It’s not a track car. It’s a luxury hyper-GT.” The 0-62mph time won’t drop below the P1’s 2.8 sec. Flewitt says that time can’t be beaten without all-wheel-drive. “And we’re not doing a Chiron here. It has to be a McLaren.” Which means light.

The car has a new carbon tub, and a new dash, built around the central driving position. “We have already built a rough interior buck out of bits of wood,” Flewitt says, “and it feels a really special position to sit.”

Flewitt confirmed to Top Gear that the BP23 uses a 4.0-litre engine (as per the 720S) not the 3.8 capacity of the P1. And the motor is more powerful, and the battery management software is greatly improved, allowing a lighter but more powerful battery. It won’t have a plug-in capability, though it will be able to run short distances on battery reserve.

McLaren is also looking at retro-fitting that battery management upgrade to the P1. “I don’t want the P1 to get old,” says Flewitt.

It’s going to be an agonising wait. The first BP23 customer gets a car in 2019. There will be just 106 in all – the same number as F1s were built. “And there will be no spiders or track versions. That’s it.”

Oh, you’re too late. They have all been sold already. In fact, says Flewitt, they had three times that number of people asking to buy one.

Originally the BP23 was to have been a one-off, for a special customer. Then that customer brought a couple of his friends along and they wanted them too. There had always been a clamour for another three-seat McLaren, so then it became a full limited-run production car.

But it’s not a successor to the F1. “The P1 is the successor to the F1, and in a few years there will be a successor to the P1.”

Forget cutting ribbons; McLaren’s new hypercar skids next to Ayrton’s F1 car

McLaren has a new factory. It’s in Yorkshire, straddling the border between Sheffield and Rotherham, and it’s where the company’s carbon tubs will be made. Rather than cut a ribbon and serve some cake to open it up, however, McLaren used it as an excuse to show its new 789bhp Senna track special in action.

There’s a carbon core in every new McLaren – the sports cars use a MonoCell, the supercars and hypercars a stiffer MonoCage – and up until now these have been built in Europe and brought across to Woking. When the Yorkshire factory is up and running, they’ll all be made in the north of England, raising the British materials that comprise a new McLaren from 50 to 58 per cent.

It’s called the McLaren Composites Technology Centre – MCTC for short, and not to be confused with the Woking base, MTC. McLaren gets the keys in April, and it should be churning out tubs by 2019, with up to 200 people being employed there.

McLaren’s invested £50million in the plant, and it’s all part of the company’s big plans between now and 2022 that’ll see £1billion invested in research and development and another 12 new cars. Yes, 12.

While cars themselves won’t roll off the Yorkshire line, one of their most key components will. And it’s not merely about upping how much of each McLaren sold is officially British.

“Taking control over manufacturing of the tub allows us more design flexibility,” says the MCTC project director, Ken Smart. “We can continually learn from the development process. Taking it in-house will up the pace of design and development.”

That suggests more diverse and intricately designed carbon tubs can be a nice little by-product of the project. McLaren is currently involved with The University of Sheffield, prototyping new tubs and their manufacture.

It’s also very keen to be part of the rejuvenation of an area that once thrived on heavy industries. The factory is on the site of a former coal mine, leading Smart to conclude that McLaren is leading the area’s “next carbon era”.

So, a rather apt place to give us a good look at how the Senna – which has carbon aplenty – moves around (and sounds) when presented with a shiny new factory floor. Let us know what you think below.

McLaren Automotive is planning a powertrain transformation. The British automaker, synonymous with throaty V-8s, is in the early days of exploring a full-electric vehicle that could arrive by 2025. It is part of an ambitious plan to convert McLaren's sports car and supercar fleet to hybrids by 2025 as the auto industry prepares for tighter emission standards around the world.

During last month's Goodwood Festival of Speed here, McLaren CEO Mike Flewitt, 56, spoke with Staff Reporter Urvaksh Karkaria about the automaker's electrification plans and global expansion outlook.

Q: What's moving McLaren toward an all-hybrid fleet and eventually an all- electric supercar?

A: China is very aggressive about emission standards. The world is going in that direction. I think legislation will drive us in that direction, and we need to be ready. The only way we can meet emission standards at the performance we want is to be hybrid. There's no other way.

As it stands at the moment, we don't think the battery technology will be ready until 2025 to give us what we want in terms of performance. A McLaren EV has got to be usable. It shouldn't be that we offer a powertrain solution that compromises. It won't just be lower emissions, it'll be a better sports car. We've set ourselves half an hour full-on track use. You need to be able to do that without recharge, and when you come in and recharge it needs to recharge in 30 minutes.

Q: Lamborghini has entered the white-hot crossover/SUV market. Why is McLaren against going down that path?

A: I'm not against SUVs. They are just not what McLaren does.

An SUV is hugely expensive to do. We wouldn't have the shared engineering that you need to have the kind of business model that supports what we do.

When we decide to do a product there are three simple tests: It has to be right for the brand and right for the customer base, we've got to have the technology to do the best car in class and we've got to make money.

An SUV starts to reduce the purity of the brand as a supercar driver's brand. Secondly, we don't have the technology. Can you imagine from a standing start if we wanted to go out and do a better car than a Range Rover, or a Cayenne — the billions we'd have to invest? Third, therefore, is we wouldn't make any money. So it doesn't tick any box.

Q: McLaren will launch a successor to the P1, its gasoline-electric hybrid hypercar introduced five years ago. What can we expect from the new vehicle?

A: The P1 shocked the world. It was a 900-horsepower car, light, lots of aero, incredibly compelling to drive. I think it was a huge step over anything that was there.

The P1 successor has got to be significant again. I think it'll come from a combination of things — driving dynamics, software controls, powertrain technology.

We are going to want a lightweight, high-performance, super aero-car that's going to do things only race cars could do in the past. And also be a great car to drive on-road.

Q: McLaren built about 3,300 vehicles last year, and plans call for producing 6,000 a year in 2025. What's driving the increased production?

A: Our cars are always going to be very exclusive products. If you looked at how many cars we sell in the U.S. and the U.K., that isn't going to change. What is changing is that a lot of new markets are opening. We're selling cars into markets that you didn't sell sup-er-cars to 10-15 years ago.

A few years ago, when we announced the P1, we sold 38 cars in China. That market has changed dramatically. Our growth in Asia, apart from China, has been superb. Taiwan is one of our best markets. Thailand is doing well. Korea has been a huge success since we went in there. We're having a study done on India and Russia right now about market size, about the access to the market.

In India, you've certainly got enough high-net-worth individuals and enough car enthusiasts. What you don't have there is a road structure for really enjoying these cars.

Q: North America is McLaren's largest market, accounting for about 35 percent of sales. What effect might the Trump administration's proposed 25 percent tariff on auto imports have on McLaren as a low-volume luxury automaker?

A: I am probably more worried today about the threat of tariffs into North America than I am about Brexit. My goal in life is completely free trade. What happens when you see tariff duties change is the market tends to stop while it understands what's happing, to digest what the new world is. I don't want that interruption in our business.

In the initial phase, we'll probably have to absorb some of the tariff-related price increase, so it harms our profitability. We've got to see what happens with competitors. We've got to see what happens with any negotiation that comes after it and then determine what the right course is. Inevitably, some of the price increase will flow through consumers eventually.

The new McLaren 720S Spider isn’t exactly wanting for power. Just like the coupe, its 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 is good for 710bhp (or 720PS, hence the car’s name). But here’s something you may not know: all of that power is sent to the rear wheels via an open differential.

It’s the same case with McLaren Automotive’s entire line-up, plus all of its previous vehicles. Yep, even the mighty P1 used an open diff. At the launch of the 720S Spider in Arizona this month, Ian Howshall, Global Product manager for Super Series, told us why.

“If we have a limited-slip different or an e-diff, we add weight,” he said. So, the solution is to not add one at all, and rely instead on torque vectoring by braking. “What the brakes do is grab the inside wheel to help the car rotate. Because you’re using components already there, you’re not adding any extra weight,” he added.

An open differential allows the amount of torque delivered to either driven wheel to vary, but this isn’t controlled - torque will merely find the path of least resistance. That’s why you’ll sometimes see open-diff cars lighting up only one wheel (or ‘one tyre fire). A limited-slip differential is introduced to help distribute the torque, either through a traditional plated differential which will lock at 50/50, a geared diff like a Quaife ATB or Torsen which can send more than 50 per cent to one wheel, or an electronically-controlled ‘e-diff’, some of which can deliver as much to 100 per cent to either side of the axle.

What McLaren’s system does is mimic the operation of differentials like these, effectively changing torque distribution using brake applications of varying severity depending on the driving conditions. The tech - perhaps inevitably - has F1 origins, and it just so happens that it was the McLaren F1 team which pioneered it.

The MP4/12 ran with an additional pedal which would operate only one rear brake, with the team deciding which side it would actuate depending on circuit layout. It was used for a good chunk of the 1997 season, and to great effect - Mika Hakkinen went half a second quicker during the tech’s first test at Silverstone. The cost of this huge time-saving? A pittance, in the world of F1. It was made using “fifty quid’s worth of parts that we already had in the truck,” McLaren chief engineer Steve Nichols once said.

F1 snapper Darren Heath outed the unusual solution when he noticed a McLaren with a glowing rear disc mid-corner, rather than before it. Other teams weren’t happy, with Ferrari’s Ross Brawn referring to the system as a “fiddle brake”. Although it wasn’t against the rules, it was banned early on in the 1998 season. As with a lot of outlawed F1 tech, it would have a future in the world of road cars.

Brake-based torque vectoring systems are no longer cutting edge, though - plenty of cars from all different ends of the market use them, so what’s makes McLaren’s better than most? “It’s more effective with our cars, [because of] the tyre performance, the power the brakes, the weight of the car - it really helps it rotate and you can feel it when it happens,” Howshall said.

The downsides? Well, you are technically wasting energy through heat, and there will be additional wear on the braking components. In terms of driveability, something relying on only these braking interventions would theoretically be less controllable than a car with an LSD on and just over the limit. I personally haven’t ever missed having a locking or torque-sensing differential during previous McLaren track outings, but then again, I haven’t played around with the Variable Drift Control on the 720S before. Perhaps that’s an investigation for another day…

The weight and simplicity arguments are strong, however - the lack of LSD is part of a wider focus on keeping the bulk down. This makes McLaren’s supercars lighter than much of the competition, and in any case, the stance is unlikely to change, not only because Woking’s current generation of seven-speed dual clutch gearboxes is designed to work with the brake-based system.

Perhaps with the exception of the Ultimate Series, every one of McLaren’s cars will be electrified to some extent by the end of 2025. “If you’re adding e-motors into the equation, there’s even more scope for torque vectoring,” Howshall concluded.

Since 2011, McLaren North America has been headquartered in New York City. At first, this may sound like a smart move, considering it's the Big Apple and all. But it has its drawbacks. Namely, space and the high price of real estate. On top of that, McLaren has been expanding at a phenomenal rate and, simply put, it has outgrown its NYC space. Instead of opting for something new in New York, the UK-based supercar has opted for something else entirely: it's moving to Texas. McLaren has officially announced plans to relocate from its NYC 4,500 square-foot office suite to a new 30,000 square foot facility in the high-tech industrial park in Coppell, Texas, just 20 minutes outside of Dallas.

This goes hand-in-hand with the company's Track25 business plan that will see the unveiling of 14 new models, alongside the four already announced, arrive by 2025. The entire lineup will also be 100 percent hybrid by that year as well.

Setting up shop in Texas, specifically in the Dallas area, has numerous benefits. For one thing, the new headquarters is only a three-hour flight from most of McLaren 27 dealerships, allowing for technical and customer service requests to be fulfilled at a faster rate. McLaren will also be able to centrally maintain, service, and manage marketing and media events.

It should also go without saying that Pure McLaren race track experience events will also benefit, organizationally speaking, given that the Circuit of the Americas is only a few hours away in Austin, Texas. Other Pure McLaren track events are held at the Thermal Club in California and Homestead, Florida.

"With the amazing growth of the McLaren brand here in North America over the past eight years we are continually trying to keep pace with the needs we have as an operation to ensure we are able to give the very best in customer and retailer service," said Tony Joseph, President of McLaren North America. "This new Texas facility means we now have the space and location to deliver even faster and effective support to our 27 strong retailer network as well as be cost-effective in both the maintenance of our own vehicle fleet and provision of training courses to our retail partners."

The coronavirus pandemic caught McLaren unprepared just like most of the companies in the automotive industry. The financial shape of the Woking-based marque collapsed and forced it to consider mortgaging its factory and historic collection in order to access a loan of around $365 million. In addition, more than 1,200 UK-based employees of the manufacturer could lose their jobs as a cost-cutting measure.

Thankfully, there’s some light at the end of the tunnel and it comes in the form of a new trademark filing which could be hinting at a new addition to McLaren’s lineup. First unearthed by The Grand Tour Nation, the application with the United States Trademark and Patent Office protects the 'Sabre' moniker. But what is it for?

Obviously, at this early stage, all we have are rumors and speculations. The supercar maker has already made it clear it’s not going to build an SUV - “not now, not ever,” so we can scratch off this as an option. A front-engine McLaren? It doesn’t sound half bad but, come on, that’s probably not going to happen in this life.

This leaves us with the (almost) educated guess of a new flagship supercar as a successor to the P1. Our colleagues at The Grand Tour Nation are also leaning towards a new halo supercar but, obviously, these are just guesses at this point. Until there’s a development prototype or word from McLaren, that’s all we can offer.
A sabre, by the way, is “a type of backsword with a curved blade associated with the light cavalry of the early modern and Napoleonic periods,” according to Wikipedia. We are not experts in swords but we can see a resemblance between the shape of a sabre and the headlights’ design of some recent McLaren products. Coincidence? Who knows.

The McLaren P1 redefined the hypercar and the hybrid car as we know them, melding electric augmentation with a twin-turbocharged V8 and carbon fiber monocoque to create one of the world's most revered hypercars. Production ended in 2015 after 375 road-going versions and 58 P1 GTR track cars were built, but seven years later, the P1 is still able to make headlines. We recently covered a new battery upgrade for P1 owners, but when reaching out to McLaren for clarification, we couldn't help but enquire about a successor. The news is good and bad as a McLaren spokesperson confirmed that a P1 successor is still in the works. The bad news is that it's still several years away

In a statement to CarBuzz, the McLaren spokesperson confirms, "We have previously said that there will be a successor to the P1, but can't give any specific details beyond it will not be before 2024 at the earliest." While the original plans for a P1 successor have been covered before, a lot has changed since.

McLaren's Track25 plan tipped the 'son of P1' to arrive by the year 2025. But that was before a global pandemic hit, and before a global semiconductor chip crisis delayed the launch of the all-new Artura hybrid. It was also before long-time boss, Mike Flewitt stepped down as company CEO and before McLaren offloaded assets including the McLaren Technology Center in Woking in an effort to build funds for its endeavors.

Despite this, it seems McLaren still wants to deliver on its promise of a successor

Details aren't exactly abundant, however. Flewitt previously stated in 2018 that the successor wouldn't be an EV but would stick to hybridization, citing that the brand wouldn't be purely EV by then. However, in 2020, Flewitt then said that "it will either be hybridized or an EV." The British automaker has developed a lot of hybrid tech since those early statements, with the Speedtail's tech heavily influencing the P1's new battery upgrade, while the McLaren Artura has become the brand's first mainstream PHEV model.

A fully-electric P1 successor could be the ideal flagship with which to introduce an all-electric platform, just as the P1 was the world's first hybrid hypercar. Mclaren will have its work cut out for it though, given the P1's 903-horsepower output to surpass and the near-2,000-hp outputs on EV hypercars like the Lotus Evija and Rimac Nevera

If you type the terms 'McLaren' and 'SUV' into the search bar at the top of this page, you can find stories from as far back as 2013 that show McLaren was vehemently opposed to the idea of creating an SUV. This decision was reaffirmed many times over the following years, with the most recent arriving shortly before the pandemic disrupted everyone's financial planning. But in October of last year, McLaren officially teased something taller than any car that has come out of Woking before. That was revealed the following month as an electric off-road racer that would never be offered to the public. This indicated a number of things, and there's now more evidence to suggest that McLaren is following Ferrari down the Purosangue's path, albeit without an emotive engine as its party piece

For a start, the electric off-roader proved that McLaren is willing to compromise its stance on SUVs. And why wouldn't it? The British automaker has been struggling financially for a long time, and rivals like Aston Martin and Lamborghini have sold boatloads of lifted luxury vehicles that influencer moms with designer manicures have lapped up. The electric off-road racer could also provide valuable insights into energy management and deployment, and considering that the Artura hybrid has been delayed so much, this sort of information could be very valuable for an SUV in the zero-emission future. It's unclear if the McLaren SUV will be a hybrid or a full EV, but its expected arrival date suggests the latter (more on that shortly).

Another hint that McLaren is definitely going to build a roadgoing SUV arrived in April of this year when the automaker announced its new CEO, Michael Leiters. He took over from Mike Flewitt, who resigned in October

Flewitt was always very vocal about McLaren not building an SUV, while Leiters oversaw the creation and development of the Porsche Cayenne and Macan SUVs, both of which have raked fortunes in for Zuffenhausen's premier automaker. He then moved to Ferrari in 2014 as chief technical officer, which meant he would have been directly involved with the Purosangue's transition from wild idea to concept to prototype. Why would McLaren hire the man if not to help create a successful SUV?

However, we still have some way to go before a McLaren SUV is shown in any form. For one thing, Leiters will only arrive in Woking next month

Furthermore, McLaren has not yet officially confirmed any sort of production SUV, but Autocar sources report that there is "an appetite for the idea." That said, McLaren reportedly wants its SUV to be as much like its sports cars as possible by showcasing a compact footprint, low weight, and advanced aero. According to these sources, McLaren will wait for smaller, lighter, and more energy-dense solid-state battery technology to reach the market, which is only likely to happen around 2028. Thus, it seems reasonable to assume that McLaren is already hard at work figuring out what a McLaren SUV should look and feel like and will present its finished product just before the end of the decade

Yet another hint that the famed British automaker is working on multiple new offerings that stray from the typical McLaren recipe arrived in October of last year when CarBuzz uncovered three new names that were listed as trademark applications. These were Solus, Aeron, and Aonic. We'd put our money on an electric SUV getting an unusual name like Solus, while the other two likely refer to future sports cars that may be electrified follow-ups to the Artura.

Mclaren apparently has the name, the seemingly ideal CEO for its future is coming soon, and the technology will arrive soon enough. In case we weren't clear, these factors all but confirm the impending announcement of a McLaren SUV. With emission regulations soon to change the landscape, an all-electric powertrain makes the most sense.

That said, this is McLaren we're talking about. We'll manage our expectations until we see something tangible

When Porsche announced it would enter the SUV segment - a segment that was far from bustling at the time - fans keeled over in shock. Purists argued that a sports car maker had no business producing cumbersome off-roaders. Fast forward to 2022, and the Cayenne and its baby brother, the Macan, are the strongest sellers in the range.

Lamborghini and Aston Martin have followed suit, and even Ferrari is getting in on the action later this year with the Purosangue. But what about McLaren? The automaker has previously said it would never build a high-riding SUV, but that could all change now that Michael Leiters is captaining the Woking-based ship. We reported on the rumor previously, as Leiters worked at both Porsche and Ferrari when the SUV ideas became a reality. But now, the rumor seems to be gathering steam and could prove to be a reality.

The newly-appointed CEO told Autocar that he is very passionate about high-end SUVs. "I developed an SUV at Ferrari [and] I developed an SUV at Porsche, so I love SUVs. But we won't do it for me. Yet I think it's a really important market ... and it continues to grow. It's very attractive as a market segment."

McLaren has had to contend with myriad financial woes in the past few years, and building a performance SUV is a one-way ticket to mega profits - just ask Lamborghini.

A potential McLaren SUV would compete with the aforementioned rivals (in terms of price and performance) but will differentiate itself in execution. "What we have to understand as McLaren is 'how can we find a product that is in line with our DNA?'" said Leiters. "We shouldn't do a classic SUV."

The popular body style would, most likely, garner plenty of sales success for the brand, but that doesn't mean it's a done deal. It's still early stages, insisted Leiters, but if it is to retain the brand's DNA, then it's more likely to be a lifted GT like the Purosangue than a genuine SUV.

As Leiters said, it would expose the boutique brand to more customers than ever before. He told Autocar that the Cayenne has a wonderful effect on sales. Not only were Cayenne buyers moving on to 911s, but traditional 911 buyers were adding Cayennes to their fleets.

Importantly, it would also add some diversity to the McLaren lineup, which currently seems pretty one-dimensional. Leiters admitted that the contemporary lineup has plenty of overlap. If a new model is introduced, it should be unique enough to appeal to a different crowd.

So, if it ever arrives, what can we expect? It's clear to see that Leiters is all for electrification. The company's first SUV will probably debut with a fully electric setup. Leiters noted battery power is an appealing option as the architecture required would pave the way for new McLarens of all shapes and sizes.

As for the ongoing rumors surrounding a potential partnership with BMW and Audi, Leiters remained tight-lipped. He admitted that McLaren is open to working with partners, but nothing concrete has been discussed. While a proposed partnership would bring untold benefits, the CEO has said the preservation of McLaren's heritage is the top priority.

"We have to maintain our DNA; I'm not interested in any partner which gives me only 'me too' technology. So the question is... not to find a partner... the question is to find the right partner," said Leiters.

How They Build the Most Powerful Mclaren Supercars by Hand - Inside Production Line Factory