Biggest McLaren model ever remains dependent on partner

McLaren’s tilt at models like the Ferrari Purosangue still requires the British sports car marque to partner up.

That’s the clear message from inside the organisation as it tussles with plans for a vehicle that will be its largest yet – and very different from any McLaren before it.

And a key step to secure a partnership has been taken, simplifying the at-times-troubled company’s ownership structure.

Early this year, the Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company stepped in to take sole ownership of the McLaren Group, including McLaren Automotive.

The move supplied much-needed funds for new model development and other priorities. But it also means that a partnership deal with a larger automotive player to underpin the marque’s new multi-passenger car is now easier.

“We have ongoing discussions with a number of potential partners. [But] until this point in time, it has taken a backseat to restructuring our capital structure because that was an impediment,” McLaren chief communications officer Piers Scott told carsales at this week’s global launch of the new 2024 McLaren Artura Spider in France.

“If such a relationship [partnership] was to involve equity, our various different classifications and share hierarchies was a major barrier… So, step one was to complete the capital restructuring. [Now] we are actively engaged in discussions with various different partners,” he confirmed.

McLaren favours a technology partnership for the new car, which Scott said “will not be in the market before 2028”.

He wasn’t specific on what sort of tech that will be shared. Nor is McLaren keen to define the vehicle, which is widely tipped to be an SUV of an ilk and price segment aligned to the Ferrari Purosangue.

After saying it would never produce an SUV in 2019, news of an electric McLaren SUV surfaced in mid-2022, before McLaren confirmed it was studying its first SUV in August 2022.

Indeed, the SUV option has gathered weight since Michael Leiters became McLaren Automotive CEO in July 2022.

Leiters was ‘Mr Cayenne’ at Porsche and during his stint at Ferrari he delivered the Purosangue.

“Whereas McLaren in the past has not shown an appetite for entering these sorts of segments, Michael certainly would be very open to it,” Scott admitted.

“Then the question becomes to what extent would we do that alone or would we seek to do it with a partner?

“And our preference would be to do it with a technology partner whereby we take the elements that are not brand-defining and take the best of what’s out there and off the shelf…

“Then focus our efforts on the elements that truly are brand-defining [for McLaren] in terms of lightweighting, visibility, driving dynamics and driver engagement,” Scott explained.

Whether the vehicle is battery-electric or a hybrid akin to the marque’s plans for its sports cars (witness the Artura and plans to hybridise the V8 powertrains of its top-line ranges) is still tightly held.

“We’ve got engineers well advanced on various different concepts and applications… You are seeing a cooling in EV supercar and lifestyle vehicle demand at the moment, so I think our strategy has been proven right to invest in hybrid and expand that,” Scott commented.

Scott confirmed pure-electric powertrains are in the marque’s future. There are still hurdles to overcome, however.

“We do see that technology maturing and we think by around 2028 [battery] cell power density could be at a level that we could deliver an EV that is true to the [McLaren] brand DNA…

“But we will not introduce a two-tonne supercar or lifestyle vehicle,” he stated.

Digital images: Kolesa.ru

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