Crossovers SUVs have undoubtedly become the automotive world’s sales stars in recent years. They have become so prevalent that even performance-oriented car brands like Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Porsche have unleashed their own entries into the market. More recently, signs have indicated that McLaren might going towards the same route in the near future as well.
Team McLaren's rig for Extreme E 2022 all-electric off-road racing series
This might be surprising for those who are familiar with McLaren since the car brand has been primarily known for sleek sports cars like the McLaren GT, Speedtail, Senna, among others. All of these are two-door speedsters.
Then again, this bit of news comes from McLaren Automotive’s new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) himself when he was interviewed by the UK-based publication Autocar.
As mentioned earlier, McLaren’s competitors have already dipped their toes into crossover SUVs. For Ferrari, there’s the upcoming Purosangue. Porsche of course has the Cayenne and Macan, while Lamborghini has the Urus.
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Accordingly, McLaren doesn’t want to get left behind in this trend. Leiters himself even said that the crossover market is “important” and is continuously growing. So, while McLaren deems that its sporting heritage is crucial for the brand, making a crossover according to him is a “very attractive” prospect.
Though some folks might groan at the notion of making crossovers, do note that high-performance ones do tend to sell well.
For instance, Lamborghini’s Urus has managed to become the Italian marque’s best-selling model in the first half of 2021. It is also Lamborghini’s fastest ever model to reach 15,000-unit sales. But while being a top-seller, the Urus wasn’t compromised in terms of performance. It has after all, recently snagged the Pike Peak Hill Climb SUV record.
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To this end, McLaren might be considering on going on the same path. Specifically, building a crossover that still has the sportiness and grunt of what they usually produce. This is of course, what the CEO means when he also said that we have to “maintain our DNA”.
Do note though that reports are saying that a theoretical McLaren-made crossover is likely an electrified model. We aren’t certain for sure just yet, though it is evident that other performance brands will be following this trend as well.
As a side note, Leiters is no stranger to producing luxury, high-performance crossover SUVs. He was after all, the project manager for the Porsche Cayenne, and he had been the chief technology officer for Ferrari back in 2014.
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