Receive free McLaren Group Ltd updates
We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest McLaren Group Ltd news every morning.
McLaren has held talks with at least four carmakers including BMW, Hyundai, Geely and Lucid about helping the British racing brand widen its model range beyond supercars, according to people close to the discussions.
The talks are part of a wider revamp of the business that includes seeking more than £600mn from current shareholders to help it develop an electric supercar, potentially before 2030, McLaren’s chief executive Michael Leiters told the Financial Times.
McLaren has been searching for possible partners in recent months, although some talks have paused while its owner Bahraini sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat streamlines its shareholder structure.
This process is expected to complete this year, allowing talks with potential suitors to move on.
Leiters confirmed the company was in “partnership” talks with a number of carmakers, but said he could not name specifics. The discussions are unlikely to conclude before the end of the year, he added.
McLaren also declined to confirm the names when asked by the FT. Geely and Hyundai declined to comment. BMW and Lucid did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
McLaren sells cars that rival Ferrari and Lamborghini, but is lossmaking and needs more funding to continue developing new models.
“This £600mn plus will enable us to prepare all the technologies that we will need,” Leiters told the FT. “We will prepare EV technology for supercars, even though I think today it’s not mature.”
He added: “The technologies right now are not ready to deliver that in the next five years, but I could imagine that within this decade, there could be something.”
McLaren believes it can develop its own battery systems for a supercar in time, he said.
“If we do an EV, to be a real supercar, to be a real McLaren, it has to have a certain weight,” he said, weighing “no more” than 1,600kg, and ideally less than 1,500kg. This requires changes in battery technology.
There are very few electric performance cars on the market, with Ferrari and Aston Martin both promising models from 2025.
While McLaren’s new petrol-driven 750S weighs 1,389kg, the electric Porsche Taycan weighs 2,295kg, while the Rimac Nevera electric hypercar weighs 2,300kg.
“You do not need 2,000 horsepower, but [it does need] to be nimble,” he said.
Talks with potential partners focus on helping McLaren develop something outside of its traditional supercar range, Leiters added. Ferrari, Lamborghini, Bentley and Aston Martin have all launched SUV-sized models that have helped increase sales and profits.
McLaren does not want to partner with any company that sells a direct competitor model, he stressed, something that would rule out Volkswagen, which owns Lamborghini.
It is “not a need, but a big opportunity to partner with somebody”, said Leiters.
The UK group previously talked to several carmakers including BMW, Volkswagen and start-up Lucid about a partnership, although nothing materialised. The group already buys some hybrid engine technology from BMW.
The company is now in a more investible position than when it previously held talks. Majority owner Mumtalakat has been simplifying McLaren’s share structure, a move that makes it easier to attract outside investment from a carmaker if needed in the future.
This year, Mumtalakat bought out preference shares from Saudi Arabia’s PIF and investment manager Ares.
The £600mn fundraising, which is running in parallel with efforts to simplify the shareholdings, has already started and is likely to conclude this year. Streamlining the ownership helps pave the way for any future carmaker partnership, Leiters added.