{"id":2148634,"date":"2026-09-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2148634"},"modified":"2026-09-17T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T21:00:00","slug":"mclaren-suv-will-be-an-urus-and-dbx-rival-not-purosangue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2148634","title":{"rendered":"McLaren: SUV will be an Urus and DBX rival, not Purosangue"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cUrus<\/a> is definitely a competitor. DBX<\/a> definitely. Purosangue<\/a> I\u2019m not sure,\u201d says McLaren Automotive\u2019s COO Michael Straughan as he gives us our best steer yet on what to expect from the Brit carmaker\u2019s upcoming SUV.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Ferrari concept is very different to the rest of the competitive set. Wait until you see the styling of it [the McLaren on stilts] and then you can comment.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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We\u2019re waiting with bated breath over here. McLaren has been sniffing around the idea of something lifted and with rear seats for years now, but while competitors have all got theirs out the door, the folk at Woking have only now announced the investment that will help them put an SUV into production.<\/p>\n

Though it is worth noting the \u00a3500m of cash<\/a> is unrelated to the product and R&D investment that\u2019ll be required to actually develop and build the family car.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The as-yet unnamed SUV will go on sale before the end of the decade and Straughan confirmed that it will use a hybrid powertrain. To begin with there won\u2019t be a fully electric option as was rumoured when McLaren merged with EV startup Forseven in 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Forseven concept was very different,\u201d explained Straughan. \u201cThat was an electric SUV with volumes at a different level. But they had attracted some suppliers who McLaren had never worked with in the past. We were very keen on the new McLaren to see how many of those suppliers we could engage. And there’s some suppliers who we hadn’t really worked with in the past who were very keen to work with McLaren, which has opened up some doors we didn’t expect.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Interesting. It\u2019s worth noting that before the merger last year, Forseven had bought a share of Chinese EV maker Nio and the whole of Gordon Murray Technologies. Wonder if tech from either of those two will figure? Perhaps that sort of detail is still a way off though, because we still don\u2019t even know what the thing will be made from.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some big decisions to make about the SUV, said Straughan. \u201cThe material is one of the biggest decisions. We’re a carbon fibre manufacturer. How on earth do we progress into an SUV?<\/p>\n

\u201cOur DNA is carbon, but we’re not committed to that at the moment because we know the challenges with a car as big as this. It would be aluminium if we couldn\u2019t make that work.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever we do with the SUV it needs to be clearly a McLaren, and it will be. There will be a rear environment which we haven’t done before, which needs to be thought about very carefully and how it applies to a very high-performance vehicle.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cPower to weight ratio has always been very important for McLaren too. I don\u2019t think we\u2019ll let that go ever. But obviously with an SUV it brings different attributes that are a first for us.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has to be ours. We have no partner that we would share this with. This is a big step for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still no word on when we\u2019ll see the results of that step, but can McLaren stick the landing like Lamborghini did with the Urus, or are faltering DBX sales a warning sign it should take heed of?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cUrus is definitely a competitor. DBX definitely. Purosangue I\u2019m not sure,\u201d says McLaren Automotive\u2019s COO Michael Straughan as he gives us our best steer yet on what to expect from the Brit carmaker\u2019s upcoming SUV. \u201cThe Ferrari concept is very different to the rest of the competitive set. Wait until you see the styling of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,237],"class_list":["post-2148634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-topgear-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2148634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2148634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2148634\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2148634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2148634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2148634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}