McLaren’s boss is ready to try something different.
The British automaker’s CEO, Michael Leiters, revealed in an interview with Road & Track that the company finally plans to release an SUV. That’s not the only exciting vehicle the company has in development. It’s also hard at work on an all-electric hypercar.
During his conversation with the magazine, Leiters, who took on his current role in the summer of 2022, made clear that McLaren is a supercar maker first and foremost. The company, fresh off losing $1.1 billion last year, is ready to expand the breadth of its offerings, though. That means finally building the SUV that the Leiters’s predecessor, Mike Flewitt, repeatedly said McLaren would never build—though the current executive was careful not to call it that.
“To unlock our full potential as a company, we believe there is a second stage, to enlarge and expand our lineup beyond the segment where we are today,” the executive told the magazine. “We have called this ‘shared performance,’ because you can share the performance with more people than you can have in a McLaren today.”
Leiters did not go into too much detail about the company’s “shared performance vehicle,” or SPV, but hinted that it would be built in collaboration with another automaker and feature a hybrid powertrain instead of an all-electric setup as had previously been reported. This means the vehicle, when it arrives, will likely utilize another marque’s core architecture but feature a McLaren powertrain like the Artura’s electrified V-6. Leiters didn’t say who the other automaker might be, but Road & Track reports that McLaren has discussed teaming up with BMW in the past. The executive did say, though, that his company’s SPV would feature a price similar to the Rolls-Royce Cullinan or Ferrari Purosangue, which means it could start around $400,000.
The SPV isn’t the only new vehicle the company has in the works. Leiters also confirmed that McLaren is developing an all-electric supercar that will help “define” what the class will be in the future. The executive had even less to say about this project, but did say that it was important that the EV weigh the same as the 3,300-pound Artura to really be a true supercar. Despite this, McLaren remains committed to building vehicles with combustion engines for the foreseeable future.
Leiters did not refer to a timetable for either vehicle. Regardless, it certainly sounds like fans of McLaren, which is now fully owned by Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund, Mumtalakat, have a lot to look forward to.
