Everyone needs an SUV. Even if you think you don’t, you probably do.
Famous for building high-performance machines, McLaren figured it could just avoid the SUV trend and keep on keeping on producing small and sexy supercars. But it was wrong, and reports say the Woking, U.K. firm may have plans for an upcoming electric SUV that will hit markets in 2030.
The brand’s position on SUVs (namely that it would never touch them) was trumpeted most frequently and most loudly by former CEO Mike Flewitt, but now that Germany’s Michael Leiters – a man who put Porsche’s Cayenne and Macan SUVs on the map, and who later assisted Ferrari in the development of its Purosangue SUV – is behind the desk, it seems McLaren might chase after its high-end rivals after all.
Chez Porsche, the record-breaking year of 2021 was led by sales of the Macan and Cayenne SUVs, which made up more than half of all the units moved. And over at Lamborghini, the Urus SUV’s sales nearly doubled those of the Huracán supercar, a ratio also held by Aston Martin and its DBX.
McLaren hasn’t officially confirmed its SUV future, but insiders have expressed “an appetite for the idea,” according to Autocar. And one of the names it recently grabbed up via trademark, “Aeron,” translates to “mountain of strength,” which sure sounds like a potential high-end SUV nameplate.
One of the reasons the famed British brand is slow-cooking the idea for an electric SUV rather than broiling might have to do with its insistence that everything it builds must be compact, light in weight, and highly aerodynamic. Such lightweight solid-state EV battery technology isn’t expected until closer to the end of the decade.
Extrapolating on the price and composition of McLaren’s smaller supercars, the SUV, when and if it comes, could arrive with a price tag around £350,000 ($547,000), a full £100,000 more than the brand’s sports cars.
Keyword: McLaren may build electric crossover by 2030: reports