A new McLaren plug-in hybrid is making its way through production and is rumored to be making its debut this Summer.
While the upcoming electrified Mclaren is not the first car McLaren has put an electric car, that honor goes to the absurdly fast P1, it will be the first ‘mainstream’ plug-in that McLaren will produce. The P1 was built in very low quantities and was price over $1 million. The upcoming Mclaren PHEV will be part of Mclaren’s ‘”Sport Series” along with cars like their 540C and 570S, cars that start at a more mainstream price of $200,000.
All joking aside, the more electrified cars in an automaker’s line up, the better.
According to Autocar the new plug-in will have an all-electric range of about 20 miles and is rumored to make its debut this summer, coronavirus interruptions notwithstanding.
Mclaren CEO Mike Flewitt would not give any further details about the electrified supercar, but did admit some of the benefits of having electric power.
“We have experience of hybrid systems with cars like the P1, P1 GTR and Speedtail, and that recipe of offering a car that can be both truly economical and thrilling to drive remains our goal. McLaren is all about building the best driver’s cars, and we see opportunities with hybrid [powertrains], in terms of the instant torque and filling the gaps in the powerband.”
While Flewitt did state that McLaren would most likely have fully electric cars ready by Britain’s 2035 ban of all gasoline cars (including hybrids), he did remark that the policy might be too aggressive, especially with discussions about moving the deadline up to 2032, making it one of the soonest phase-outs in the world.
“Hybridisation could play a key role in the journey [to net zero emissions], and I believe that a longer transition period of running hybrids and full EVs alongside each other could be part of the answer. We’ve invested in this technology with the goal of paying back that investment over a number of years.”
“We believe it will meet customer requirements sooner than full EV. To set a deadline for its end before we have launched it is detrimental to the perception of the steps forward we’ve made, and it both stalls the demand and potentially causes people to hold on to or buy older, more polluting cars.”
Mclaren’s switch to fully electric cars might be almost inconsequential in the grand scheme of things when you exclusively look at how much less carbon emissions there are. However the top-down approach can also be helpful, people love looking at supercars and if those same supercars transition over to electricity it will be another avenue of towards having people becoming more aware of electric cars.
So there won’t be many of these $200,000+ hybrids on the road, there will sure be a lot of people with wallpapers of an electric car.
