McLaren's CEO Described Something That Sounds Like an SUV

When is an SUV not an SUV? Please note that this is not a rhetorical question. Earlier this year, Nic Brown — president of McLaren of the Americas — told Autoweek, “In the past, we have used words like ‘never’ (when addressing the question of a McLaren SUV). What we’re saying now is that we are open to at least investigating various segments, but we haven’t made a decision yet.” Now, another executive in the company has walked that “never” back even further.

McLaren CEO Michael Leiters recently spoke with Road & Track‘s Mike Duff about the future of the company. And it sure sounds like McLaren has something very SUV-like in the works.

“To unlock our full potential as a company, we believe there is a second stage, to enlarge and expand our lineup beyond the segment where we are today,” Leiters told Road & Track. “We have called this ‘shared performance,’ because you can share the performance with more people than you can have in a McLaren today.” It’s this comment that led Road & Track to dub McLaren’s latest project a “shared performance vehicle,” or SPV.

When he spoke with Autoweek, Brown cited this description for McLaren’s core business: “Mid-engined, two-door, two-seat supercars.” So really, this SPV could be anything with more than two seats — but given the popularity of the high-end SUV market, an SUV in all but name seems likely.

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Leiters also suggested that this SPV might involve collaborating with another automaker. “I think the smart way is with technology partnership, to find a partner and create synergies,” he told Road & Track. He went on to suggest that it would be a hybrid, preferably one that uses an existing powertrain. A McLaren SUV might have been the last auto you’d have expected to see — but that unlikely reality might be on a road near you before long.