- McLaren has finally confirmed its rumored SUV project is happening.
- SUV will be built in UK and could lead to other front-engined cars.
- Announcement came as McLaren broke news of $675 m investment.
If you can’t beat them – and when it comes to sales and profits, McLaren can’t – join them. A decade ago McLaren’s then management swore blind it would never sully its supercar credentials by building an SUV. Now it’s finally confirmed that it’ll launch a rival for the Ferrari Purosangue and Aston Martin DBX by the end of this decade.
The official confirmation of a long-rumored plan came this week as McLaren unveiled a £500 million ($674 m) investment. The cash will help expand the automaker’s manufacturing operation in the UK and promises to add at least 1,000 jobs across various parts of the business by 2032.
Related: McLaren’s Next Supercar Will Pack A Bigger Punch Than The 750S For Less Money
Plans are underway for a new British assembly plant separate from the current Woking base that can handle the next generation of McLaren models including “a performance SUV.” That’s about as much detail as the brand’s official release revealed about the upcoming crossover.
But COO Michael Straughan did tell Autocar that McLaren was considering building the high-riding four-door around a carbon tub like the one used on its supercars. The same report says the SUV will debut before 2030, and could spawn other front-engined, all-wheel drive cars. And last year we reported that McLaren dealers claimed to have been shown an SUV that looked like a more muscular Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT and rode on 24-inch wheels.
Unlike former CEO Mike Flewitt, who repeatedly squashed ideas for an SUV in the 2010s, the company’s latest boss is very open to the idea. He’s Michael Leiters, ex of Ferrari and previously a long-time Porsche man who helped develop both the Cayenne and Purosangue.
Could Double McLaren’s Sales
The financial inducements to jumping on the SUV bandwagon are huge. McLaren only built around 2,000 cars across all model types in 2025, but Ferrari is estimated to build up to 3,000 Purosangues each year, and the Lamborghini Urus sells around double that.
And the SUV news isn’t the only big change for McLaren. It also revealed its engines will no longer be built by Ricardo, but designed and produced in house. Two new hybrid engines and transmissions are already in development, the automaker says.
Expanding into the SUV space seems like a no-brainer to us, and having driven the Purosangue I know it’s possible to do that and still deliver something that’s dynamite to drive. But what do you think? Is McLaren making a mistake, or is finally making the right move, just a decade too late?
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