McLaren confirms first SUV in British manufacturing blitz

McLaren has confirmed it will build a performance SUV, ending decades of blunt denials and joining Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini, Aston Martin and Rolls-Royce in the most lucrative corner of the luxury car business.

The about-face is the headline act in a £500 million (about $944 million) investment program to expand McLaren's UK manufacturing, engineering and operations – including a second British assembly plant and, for the first time in the company's history, engines built in-house.

Rewind to 2019 and McLaren couldn't have been clearer – it would not build an SUV. The brand's head of design operations Mark Roberts didn't blink: "I can easily answer that and say no".

"We really do deliver on the ultimate driving experience. For us, it means no compromise. An SUV doesn't allow us to deliver on that. It's not a no-compromise kind of vehicle," Roberts said at the time.

Ferrari said much the same thing before the Purosangue arrived. Lamborghini said it before the Urus.

Rolls-Royce teased the Cullinan in 2013, then couldn't build them fast enough. The pattern is well established, and McLaren has now joined the SUV party.

Chief executive Nick Collins framed the unnamed SUV as a way to convert Formula 1 goodwill into showroom traffic, pointing to an ‘untapped love’ for the brand among people who've never bought a McLaren.

The big injection of capital comes from L'IMAD, the Abu Dhabi sovereign investor that took McLaren Automotive off Bahrain's Mumtalakat last year via CYVN Holdings, which has pledged US$2 billion over five years.

"This investment reflects our confidence in its potential and our commitment to backing the business through its next chapter," L'IMAD group chief executive Jassem Al Zaabi said in a press statement.

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham was predictably chuffed: "McLaren Automotive is doubling down on Britain, keeping the design, the engineering and the building of every future car here, and taking on a thousand more people to do it."

Strip away the flag-waving and this move is crucial in securing the brand’s future. McLaren currently builds roughly 2000 cars a year and has been bleeding money; the SUV, the second vehicle plant and in-house powertrains are an attempt to turn a boutique supercar outfit into a broader luxury manufacturer with Ferrari-grade profitability.

Woking and the Sheffield carbon-fibre facility both expand, with Sheffield understood to be the frontrunner for the new plant. Capacity figures and a model name remain under wraps, as does any Australian timing – though local deliveries are all but guaranteed given McLaren retails in more than 40 markets.

Notably, there's no EV. "[Customers] are not asking us, and we're not doing one," Collins told the Guardian. Where have we heard that before?

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