A McLaren SUV is Looking Increasingly Plausible Now
British supercar maker McLaren has long said it would never sell an SUV, but times have changed. As Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Lamborghini and Aston Martin have realized, there is simply too much money to be made with SUVs. Even Lotus has introduced one, and Ferrari will do the same next month.
McLaren now has a new boss, Michael Leiters, who sees things differently from his predecessors. In an interview with Autocar, he admitted that the company is actively exploring the idea of launching an SUV and what kind of design might work.
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The thing you have to know is that Leiters previously worked on the development of the Porsche Cayenne and, just before joining McLaren on July 1, he also oversaw the highly anticipated Ferrari Purosangue. In his mind, SUVs are a “very attractive” market, one that still has potential for growth. Unsurprisingly, though, he said McLaren should not and would not make a classic SUV that looks like all of the others.
In terms of performance, we fully expect a future McLaren SUV to raise the bar as will the aforementioned Purosangue, not to mention the Aston Martin DBX 707 and Lamborghini Urus Performante. But what about the powertrain? Good question. Some form of electrification will be part of the package, you can count on that.
Incidentally, Leiters confirmed that McLaren is interested in working with a partner but that no deal is imminent (despite rumours of a deal with BMW or Audi).
“We have to maintain our DNA,” he told Autocar. “I'm not interested in any partner which gives me only 'me too' technology. So the question is to find the right partner; the question is not to find a partner.”
If it does come to life, a McLaren SUV won’t be ready before mid-decade. Autocar reports that it would be priced around £350,000, or about $530,000 CAD.
