McLaren to Build First SUV With £500m Abu Dhabi Investment, Targeting F1 Fans With Children

The unnamed model is intended to draw buyers who admire McLaren’s Formula One team but have not bought its supercars. Nick Collins, chief executive of McLaren Automotive, said the racing team’s recent success had created an “untapped love” for the brand among people who had never bought its cars. The SUV, he said, would open the door to buyers for whom two-seater sports cars were a limitation. “It’s quite difficult if you have to decide which one of your kids you want to leave behind at home.”

The investment is part of a turnaround plan at McLaren Automotive, which was bought from Bahraini sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat last year by CYVN Holdings, an Abu Dhabi government-owned investment company. CYVN has promised to invest $2bn (£1.4bn) in the loss-making group over five years. McLaren also merged with British electric vehicle startup Forseven Holdings last April.

McLaren has no immediate plans to build an EV of its own, despite a government mandate requiring all new cars in the UK to be zero-emission by 2035. “[Customers] are not asking us, and we’re not doing one,” Collins said.

Founded in 1963 by racing driver Bruce McLaren, the company built racing cars and later the McLaren F1 supercar in the 1990s before spinning off McLaren Automotive as a dedicated road carmaker in 2010. It struggled in recent years with mounting debts and falling sales before last year’s takeover by CYVN. European luxury carmakers have faced difficult trading conditions after a collapse in demand in China, a key market, forcing job losses at rivals Aston Martin and Bentley.

The investment will also fund a new factory. Sheffield, where McLaren has an existing carbon-fibre plant, is understood to be the preferred site over the company’s headquarters in Woking. Michael Straughan, McLaren’s chief operating officer, said the SUV was a “critical” moment and that he could “quite easily see us doubling” sales, now about 3,000 cars a year. He said the new factory was likely to be built in Sheffield, calling it “the jewel in the crown” for the company’s manufacturing capability, though no final decision had been made.

It comes amid a strong period for sister company McLaren Racing, which has won the last two Formula One constructors’ championships and is also based in Woking. Mumtalakat still has majority control of McLaren Racing, while CYVN has a minority stake. Straughan said: “There’s no doubt there’s people who are F1 fans … who would never purchase a McLaren sports car, but would definitely consider a McLaren SUV.” He would not give the exact price but expected the vehicle to compete with the Bentley Bentayga, Aston Martin DBX and Lamborghini Urus, all of which start above £200,000. “I think the trick here is conquest of other brands’ customers,” Straughan added.

The prime minister, Andy Burnham, welcomed the investment, saying it showed the company was “doubling down on Britain.”

The move comes as SUVs have grown in size and faced warnings over safety. Research has shown cars have grown 1.2cm longer, 0.5cm taller and 0.5cm wider each year on average since 2000, and that potential SUV buyers are undeterred by warnings they are more likely to kill pedestrians.