Electric McLaren SUV in the pipeline

McLaren is reportedly readying a high-performance all-electric hyper-SUV to rival both the 2023 Lotus Eletre and the fastest combustion-powered cars like the Lamborghini Urus.

According to Autocar, the McLaren SUV will go on sale in the second half of this decade and will not be offered with either combustion or hybrid power.

Despite making repeated assurances that it would never chase profits by producing an SUV, the news the British supercar brand is branching into high-margin SUVs sees it following in the tyre tracks of the Aston Martin DBX and Ferrari Purosangue.

In a bid to ensure it will be the lightest and fastest in its class, the McLaren SUV will be lower than its rivals and have compact dimensions. It will also come with either two or three motors that will provide for all-wheel drive.

Primed to offer “top-end” battery tech, it’s rumoured that pricing for the brand’s first-ever SUV will start above £250,000 ($A430,000) and possibly push to more than £350,000 ($A600,000).

McLaren’s dramatic U-turn follows the success of rival brands’ SUVs that not only continue to sell well but offer greater margins than supercars.

In 2021, the Lamborghini Urus, for example, outsold the Lamborghini Huracan at a rate of two to one, while DBX sales now account for half of all global Aston Martin volume.

The switch in priorities also coincides with the arrival of new CEO Michael Leiters – the German engineer who oversaw the development of both the highly successful Porsche Cayenne and Macan, before moving to Ferrari to help develop the soon-to-be-launched Ferrari Purosangue.

As well as being as light as possible, the new McLaren will use its F1-derived aerodynamic know-how to ensure the SUV has the slipperiest styling to maximise range.

There’s no word on names for the new SUV, but recent trademarks for the Solus, Aonic and Aeron are all tipped to be in the running for the four-seat, four-door mega-SUV.