McLaren boss: We need another hypercar

McLaren’s CEO, Mike Flewitt, has announced he wants his company to make a junior P1 hypercar.

Priced at around £400,000 (A$750,000) the new sub-P1 hypercar will sit in the range above the 650S but below the million dollar P1.

Set to be powered by a less powerful version of the P1’s 675kW electrically-assisted 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8, the new hypercar will still accelerate to 100km/h in less than 3.0 seconds and onto a speed well above 320km/h but, says Flewitt, will have a different focus to its flagship model, suggesting it will be less extreme.

Making the announcement in an interview with Brit mag, Auto Express, Flewitt  also confirmed that more McLaren models will benefit from power-boosting hybrid systems and that by 2025 more than half of all McLarens sold will be hybrids.

“I have said in 10 years I expect half of our cars to be hybrids, but I actually think it will be faster. And I think it could be more than half,” said Flewitt. “Will we put that on all vehicles? If I could get the cost and weight right I absolutely would. Our strategy is to use technology to produce the best driving cars.” Flewitt said.

McLaren’s boss said McLaren is still on track to introduce one new model, or model derivative every year. Next up is another derivative of the soon-to-be-launched 570S, possible a GT3-style version in 2016 before the 570S convertible arrives in 2017.

The British car-maker is currently celebrating sales (and profits) up 18 per cent for 2014. Last year McLaren sold 1649 cars. By 2017 it hopes to manufacturer over 4000 cars annually.