2014 appears to have been the best year ever for many luxury and sports car manufacturers, with McLaren Automotive announcing 1,648 sales last year, an absolute record for the brand.
The figure accounts for an increase of 21 percent over 2013 and includes 248 examples of the 916PS McLaren P1 hybrid hypercar – around two thirds of the car’s total production run of 375 units.
McLaren says the strong growth was fueled by the launch of the 650S Coupé and Spider models, with the brand’s core model range reaching 1,400 sales last year, including some units of the outgoing 12C.
All four of McLaren’s regional business units saw strong growth, led by the Asia-Pacific region which saw the biggest rise with sales increasing by 80 percent over 2013. The North American market remained McLaren’s largest region accounting for more than 30 percent of overall sales, while sales in both Europe and the Middle East grew year-on-year by 10 percent and 9 percent respectively.
The automaker also opened 14 new retail locations last year, bringing its total global sales network to 68 sites. The network of retailers grew to cover 30 markets with the additions of Chile, Scotland and Thailand.
McLaren opened new sales outlets in existing markets as well, most notably Calabasas, Cape Town, Changsha, Chongqing, Fuzhou, Hangzhou, Kunming, Melbourne, Nanjing, Shenzhen and Tianjin. Further openings are planned for 2015.
This year will be very important for McLaren Automotive, as the brand will launch its most attainable model yet, the Sports Series, scheduled to debut at the New York Auto Show in April. McLaren will also start production of the limited edition track-only McLaren P1 GTR after the final road-going McLaren P1 has been built.
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