Luxury supercar maker McLaren Automotive unveiled its all-new, flexible, lightweight vehicle architecture that will lay the foundation for its next generation of electrified supercars, said CEO Mike Flewitt.
The new architecture, designed specifically to accommodate new hybrid powertrains, has been entirely engineered, developed and produced in-house in the UK at McLaren’s £50m state-of-the-art McLaren Composites Technology Centre (MCTC) in the Sheffield region. It utilizes innovative processes and techniques to remove excess mass, reduce overall vehicle weight, while also further improving safety attributes.
The first new McLaren hybrid supercar to be based on the all-new architecture will launch in 2021.
“The new ground-breaking vehicle architecture is every bit as revolutionary as the MonoCell chassis we introduced with the company’s first car, the 12C, when we first embarked on making production vehicles a decade ago,” Flewitt said. “This new, ultra-lightweight carbon fiber chassis boasts greater structural integrity and higher levels of quality than ever before with our new MCTC facility quickly becoming recognized as a global center of excellence in composite materials science and manufacturing.
“Our advanced expertise in lightweight composites processes and manufacturing, combined with our experience in cutting-edge battery technology and high-performance hybrid propulsion systems, means we are ideally placed to deliver to customers levels of electrified high-performance motoring that until now have simply been unattainable.”
The new architecture will enable McLaren to transition to 100 percent electrified supercars, said Flewitt. “For us, light-weighting and electrification go hand-in-hand to achieve better performance as well as more efficient vehicles.”
