McLaren puts £500m behind its first SUV - TimesLIVE

British supercar maker McLaren said on Tuesday it would invest £500m (R10.97bn) in its UK manufacturing and engineering operations and add new models, including its first-ever SUV, to lift sales and pursue far higher profit margins to rival the likes of Ferrari.

McLaren’s investments will include a new UK assembly plant, and it will develop and build its own transmissions and engines, which it said would create 1,000 direct and indirect jobs by 2032.

“McLaren Automotive is doubling down on Britain,” UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham said in a statement.

The firm’s expansion plan comes as carmakers across the industry are restructuring. Nissan is ditching plants and some future models. Jaguar Land Rover is cutting staff while Volkswagen’s supervisory board has just approved a turnaround plan that includes sweeping job cuts.

McLaren CEO Nick Collins said the company’s investment plan comes after restructuring last year following its acquisition by Abu Dhabi’s CYVN Holdings, which also bought a non-controlling stake in McLaren’s Formula One business. The carmaker’s main shareholder now is Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund L’IMAD.

L’IMAD has committed to investing £1.5bn in McLaren over the next five years.

The Bentayga SUV is luxury British carmaker Bentley’s top-selling model. Picture: (Bentley) McLaren slashed bloated dealer stocks last year by cutting one of two production shifts at the assembly plant at its headquarters in Woking, England, and has now switched to making cars only when orders are placed to avoid discounting and boost residual values.

As part of the restructuring process, sales fell to about 2,000 cars in 2025 from just less than 3,300 in 2024.

The new performance SUV model in development is part of a strategy of boosting sales by offering customers more options with a number of models planned, though Collins declined to provide product details or launch dates.

“We’ll do it very much in a McLaren way,” Collins said of the SUV. “It will bring something unique to the segment, which we think the customers will value.”

SUVs have become a growth driver for luxury sports carmakers, broadening their customer base beyond traditional buyers of sports cars and grand tourers to tap into strong demand for high-end utility vehicles. At Lamborghini, the Urus SUV has driven the brand’s sales growth since its launch in 2018. Rival Ferrari has limited production of its roughly €450,000 (R8.43m) Purosangue SUV to maintain the vehicle’s exclusivity.

The Bentayga SUV is luxury British carmaker Bentley’s top-selling model.

McLaren COO Michael Straughan said the carmaker needed growth to lower its material costs and lift its profits, and the way to get there was through expanding its product portfolio starting with the SUV.

McLaren has been loss-making for years, but Straughan said the company’s margins could match the top performers in a segment that includes Ferrari, which has the highest profit margins in the auto industry.

“We can equal the best, but we’ve got a long way to go,” he said.

While Ferrari has launched a fully electric model, the Luce, which received a cool response from investors and critics, McLaren CEO Collins said the carmaker had no plans for an electric vehicle for now because there was no customer demand for one.

“We will do an electric vehicle when our customers ask us for one,” he said. “And they’re not asking.”