McLaren's Bold Move: Meet the 'Shared Performance Vehicle', The Game-Changing SUV Slated to Reinvigorate the Brand

After enduring a tumultuous few years, McLaren is looking to ignite a revival. Known for its iconic F1 and P1 hypercars, McLaren has faced significant financial hurdles, including over $1 billion in revenue losses in 2023. These financial strains were compounded during a critical transitional period that saw the company without a CEO amid the global pandemic. Now, under new leadership and ownership, McLaren is poised for a comeback.

The path to profitability for McLaren seems to lie in the lucrative world of SUVs. But don't expect McLaren to come right out and say it. New CEO Michael Leiters cleverly refers to the impending vehicle as a 'shared performance vehicle' or SPV, sidestepping the term SUV. This strategic jargon stems partly from former CEO Mike Flewitt’s staunch vow that McLaren would never venture into the SUV market.

According to an interview with Road & Track, McLaren’s SPV will emphasize 'shared utility' over traditional sports utility. The company plans to collaborate with an unnamed partner to provide the platform for this venture. It's a calculated move for a supercar manufacturer desperate for a financial boost to stay true to its heritage of making mind-blowing machines.

The financial necessity behind this move is bleak. As Road & Track reported, McLaren lost more than half a million dollars on each of the 2,137 supercars sold in 2023. The SPV cannot come soon enough if McLaren aims to resume its legacy of supercars. Leiters stressed that while profitability is essential, McLaren's primary focus remains on their core segment—supercars and ultimate cars. Yet, undeniable is the fact that SUVs offer more substantial profit margins—a reality that Aston Martin, Ferrari, and Lamborghini have successfully embraced with the DBX, Purosangue, and Urus, respectively.

Leiters expounded on McLaren’s vision, revealing that to unlock the company's full potential, they plan to expand the product lineup beyond its current segment. This 'shared performance' strategy aims to involve more vehicles and, in effect, more people in the world of McLaren. The SPV might well come in multiple versions, possibly hybrids, and is likely to be a plug-in model built with a partner by integrating McLaren’s powertrain into an existing platform.

Potential powertrain options for the SPV could include a hybrid twin-turbo V6 or a plug-in V8. The latter choice hints at a potential partnership with BMW, utilizing the platform of BMW’s V8 PHEV XM. Leiters noted that McLaren’s supercars are celebrated for their lightweight design, fueling speculation that a collaboration with BMW’s M Division might create a lighter, more efficient plug-in hybrid SUV.

Early reports suggest that the lightweight SPV could have a price tag around $400,000. Profits from this venture would bolster McLaren's finances as it ventures into the uncharted territory of electric vehicles, with ambitions to create what they call the 'first EV supercar.' It’s a bold strategy that rests heavily on the success of the SPV, a vehicle that McLaren hopes will pave the way out of its current financial straits.

In a world racing towards electrification, McLaren’s calculated pivot to an SUV isn’t just about survival—it's about maintaining its legacy while embracing the future. A lighter, high-performance, hybrid-SPV could very well be the lifeline McLaren needs to secure its standings in both the combustion and electric supercar market.

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