Key highlights
- McLaren will develop its first-ever performance SUV as part of a £500 million UK investment.
- The SUV is expected to use hybrid technology, although McLaren has not confirmed its powertrain.
- The brand says it has no plans for an electric vehicle until customers demand one.
For years, McLaren swore black and blue it would never build an SUV. It was a sports car company, full stop, and anyone suggesting otherwise was missing the point of the brand entirely.
Well, plans change. McLaren has now confirmed it’s developing a performance SUV, as part of a much bigger £500 million investment into its UK manufacturing base. The money will fund a new factory, add roughly 1000 local jobs, and support in-house development of hybrid engines and transmissions.
It’s a notable move given the direction most of the British car industry has been heading. Honda, Nissan and Jaguar Land Rover have all been winding back their UK manufacturing presence lately, so McLaren doubling down is going against the grain.
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No McLaren EV on the horizon
If you were expecting McLaren’s SUV debut to come with a big battery and an EV badge, think again. CEO Nick Collins was blunt about it when speaking with Reuters, saying the SUV will be “very much in a McLaren way” and bring something genuinely different to the segment. On the electric question specifically, Collins didn’t hedge: McLaren will build an EV once its customers actually start asking for one, and right now, they’re not.
While McLaren hasn’t locked in a powertrain, the smart money is on something built around its existing plug-in hybrid tech, likely a version of the twin-turbo 3.0-litre V6 hybrid setup currently doing duty in the Artura. That would let McLaren chase performance SUV territory without fully committing to electrification, at least in this first generation.
The irony isn’t lost on anyone
There’s a bit of déjà vu here for long-time McLaren watchers. Back in 2018, the brand’s then North American boss Tony Joseph gave a now-famous interview flatly ruling out an SUV, arguing it would dilute the brand, wasn’t a proper driver’s car, and was a demand created by the media rather than actual customers.
Fast forward to 2026, and McLaren is doing exactly what it once swore off. It wouldn’t be the first performance brand to eat those words, either.
Why is McLaren joining a very crowded club?
Practically every rival in the performance and luxury space has already gone down this road, and most have been rewarded for it. The Porsche Macan, Lamborghini Urus, Aston Martin DBX, Bentley Bentayga and Rolls-Royce Cullinan were each their respective brand’s best-selling models globally in 2025. Ferrari joined the party too, with the Purosangue.
For McLaren, a brand that’s leaned hard into its lightweight, track-focused identity, an SUV is a genuine shift. But given how well the segment has performed for everyone else who’s tried it, it’s not hard to see the commercial logic.
What this means for Australian buyers
There’s no word yet on pricing, specifications, timing, or whether the SUV will even make it to Australian shores, so treat all of that as very much up in the air for now.
What’s worth watching is the broader shift it signals. If a brand as committed to pure sports cars as McLaren is willing to build an SUV, and stick with hybrid rather than jumping straight to electric, it says something about where genuine customer demand actually sits right now, both here and globally. Aussie buyers eyeing the performance SUV space already have plenty of options; it’ll be interesting to see whether McLaren’s version, whenever it lands, brings anything genuinely new to the table. We’ll have more details as McLaren confirms them.
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