The boss of McLaren says the British firm is focused on improving its financial status in the immediate future and won’t expand its line-up for five more years.
McLaren has been plagued by financial issues since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, so much so that it was forced to sell its famed Woking headquarters and a host of cars from its heritage collection. While recently speaking at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, chief executive Michael Leiters said his immediate focus is to “bring the company on the right road to profitability,” adding that McLaren is working with existing shareholders “to recapitalize the company to fund and restructure.”
Once the financial status of McLaren is taken care of, the team will then shift focus to expanding its line-up. When asked by Autocar about development progress on a rumored crossover, Leiters said that such a model won’t land before 2028.
Read: McLaren’s New Boss Is Open To The Idea Of An SUV
“If we are on the right road for profitability, we will think about extension across all segments. We call it ‘shared performance’,” he said. “Shared performance could be everything that has more than two doors and/or more than two seats. This is something we will think about later. We didn’t make a decision on that. It’s definitely a business opportunity for us. But I don’t see that in the near future. If you consider what I said – recapitalization and then going to profitability plus the development time [of the car] – this won’t be before 2028.”
The McLaren Artura and 750S will remain at the core of the company’s product portfolio until 2028 and represent two of the pillars of the company’s planned three-pillar approach, consisting of hybrids, ICEs, and EVs.
While it is unclear what form McLaren’s first EV will take, Leiters said the company does not want to build a car that weighs 2,000 kg (~4,400 lbs) and has 2,000 hp (like the Rimac Nevera) but instead, an EV that has a weight comparable to the 750S.
