McLaren SUV finally confirmed, but more supercars are coming too
New investment in McLaren will allow the supercar maker to expand its portfolio, make its own engines, and try to cash in on an SUV
Eighteen months after McLaren changed hands from the Bahrain Sovereign Wealth Fund to the Abu Dhabi Government-backed CYVN Holdings and merged with electric vehicle start-up Forseven, the British supercar manufacturer has come up for air and announced its strategic plans for the business. Sports car fans look away now, because it involves a performance SUV. And 1,000 new jobs over the next six years.
With £500 million invested by shareholder L’IMAD (the largest in the company's history), McLaren, under the leadership of CEO Nick Collins, will spend the cash on upgrading the brand’s manufacturing centre at the MTC headquarters in Woking along with a new vehicle assembly facility in the UK. It will also double the size of its carbon fibre facility in Sheffield.
McLaren to build its own engines – and an SUV
McLaren will also, for the first time, design and build its own powertrains in-house with two new hybrid engines and transmissions already signed off. These include the V8 and six-speed manual gearbox that were showcased in the McL 6GT concept car revealed at Monterey Car Week last month. Currently, McLaren’s engines are designed in-house but are manufactured off-site by Ricardo.
The upgraded production lines and new powertrains will, according to McLaren, allow it to build ‘a complete portfolio around the supercar – intentionally and carefully segmented.’ It means they will build on what was created in the 750S supercar and W1 hypercar, but with a commitment to enter new categories, although only the on-off SUV project that’s been under discussion for at least five years has been confirmed for production.
Other projects that have been discussed, rumoured and suggested include some form of front-engined GT car, a four-door GT-coupe and a model to sit under the Artura. The likelihood of all of those seeing the light of day are slim (£500 million doesn’t really touch the sides of a car company in 2026, Aston Martin is rumoured to have spent £300m developing and bringing the DBX to market), but a replacement for the Artura, which was first shown to customers and the press in December 2019 before finally being launched in 2022 at the second attempt, is approaching its seventh birthday. The 750S, while still ultra-competitive and one of, if not the most exciting supercar you can buy, is approaching its fourth birthday and is underpinned by a lot of 720S, which will celebrate its 10th anniversary in 2027.
Spearheading the look of the new family of McLaren’s will be the recently appointed Chief Creative Officer, David Woodhouse, who joined from Nissan earlier this year where he held the role of Vice President of Design.
McLaren’s new product strategy, more of which will be revealed over the coming months and is likely to rely heavily on Gordon Murray’s iStream chassis technology, which was acquired by CYVN in 2023, and has already seen investment in the company’s car Creation Centre in Bicester (formally Forseven's operation centre) and a new vehicle development facility based at MIRA in the Midlands. To support this expansion at least 1,000 new roles will be created between now and 2032, made up of full time and agency staff, with up to 3,000 additional jobs expected to be created across McLaren's supply chain. McLaren currently employs around 2,500 people in the UK.
