McLaren Plans £1 Billion Investment

The 570GT wasn’t the only big thing coming from British automaker McLaren for the Geneva Motor Show. CEO Mike Flewitt has plans for the next six years of the company in something he calls “Track 22” – something that involves a £1 billion investment.

“Since its inception, McLaren Automotive has launched world-class products and this has been made possible by continuous investment in our future” Flewitt said, and revealed that they were getting ready to plough 25% of their turnover back into the business. “This will see us launch 15 all-new cars or derivatives,” continued Flewitt.

One of the possible results from this investment is the development of a new engine moving towards hybrid powertrains. The company’s current hypercar, the P1, uses a ferocious combination of gas and electric power to push its speed and McLaren is looking to spread that into the rest of their range. “Our next hybrid vehicle will launch towards the latter part of our six year plan,” Flewitt explained, “And we will see at least 50% featuring hybrid technology by 2022. Hybridization has obvious CO2 and fuel consumption advantages but for us, it is all about delivering the performance and enjoyment of a McLaren.”

But Flewitt has also confirmed McLaren may be exploring electric power all the way for their next ultimate series flagship, to push towards something more astounding: “Our engineers have even started work on a one-off prototype to evaluate the possible benefits of a fully-electric powertrain in an Ultimate Series car; such is the pace of development.”

However that car will be for the far future. The next Mclaren scheduled for launch is the 570S Spider in 2017. Still, the gears are set for them to really get things off the road, hopefully.

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