Ferrari Built a Super SUV and Now McLaren’s Doing the Unthinkable
The plug-in hybrid “shared performance vehicle” will be aimed squarely at the Ferrari Purosangue.
Scott EvansWriterAvarvariiPhotographerManufacturerPhotographerAug 21, 2025
FUTURE McLaren SUV
What It Is An SUV, but don’t call it that. McLaren prefers the term “shared performance vehicle” because you can share the supercar-on-stilts experience with more than just one passenger. It will be a first for the British company, which has only ever made two-door exotics and has sworn off SUVs in the past. We expect it to be aimed squarely at the Ferrari Purosangue, the other not-SUV in the conversation, rather than the honest and straightforward Aston Martin DBX and Lamborghini Urus, which are definitely SUVs.
Why It Matters McLaren needs to make more money, ASAP. After years of poor sales, financial struggles, and multiple ownership changes, the company is finally ready to concede its anti-SUV stance and follow the model pioneered by Porsche nearly a quarter-century ago. If successful, the SUV would sell in much higher volumes than the other McLarens and in turn fund the supercars’ continuing existence.
Platform and Powertrain The powerplant is the easiest part of the equation. CEO Michael Leiters has already said it’ll be one of McLaren’s existing engines, which would mean either the twin-turbo V-8 or twin-turbo V-6 hybrid, though we’re skeptical the latter would fit between the front wheels because it was designed for mid-engine use and is much wider than a typical V-6. He has also suggested he’d like to make the SPV a plug-in hybrid, and it’s believed the next generation of McLaren’s V-8 is already going to be a PHEV.
The platform is a much harder question. Leiters says he wants to work with partners and, ideally, put a McLaren powertrain in someone else’s platform. It’s possible McLaren could do the whole thing in-house, but that’s more expensive. Who the company would partner with is harder to say. BMW has been floated, as the companies have worked together in the past, but the rest of the German auto industry has been floated, too, at one point or another.
The elephant in the room is Forseven, the British advanced mobility startup that’s been merged into McLaren by their shared parent company CYVN Holdings. Forseven has yet to announce a product or even a category of vehicle, but prior to the merger it was working on an electric SUV. The company also has a licensing deal for Chinese EV automaker Nio’s technology, courtesy of CYVN’s heavy investment in that company.
Our rendering operates from the assumption McLaren will integrate its hybrid and or PHEV powertrains into the SUV platform Forseven has been developing, possibly using battery and electric motor technology from Nio. Doing it all in-house would allow McLaren to better meet Leiters’ stated goal of keeping the weight as low as possible and make it easier to design an SUV that looks like a McLaren (as seen in our rendering), rather than forcing McLaren’s unique styling language onto some existing SUV.
Estimated Price $400,000
Expected On-Sale Date 2028
Scott Evans
Were you one of those kids who taught themselves to identify cars at night by their headlights and taillights? I was. I was also one of those kids with a huge box of Hot Wheels and impressive collection of home-made Lego hot rods. I asked my parents for a Power Wheels Porsche 911 for Christmas for years, though the best I got was a pedal-powered tractor. I drove the wheels off it. I used to tell my friends I’d own a “slug bug” one day. When I was 15, my dad told me he would get me a car on the condition that I had to maintain it. He came back with a rough-around-the-edges 1967 Volkswagen Beetle he’d picked up for something like $600. I drove the wheels off that thing, too, even though it was only slightly faster than the tractor. When I got tired of chasing electrical gremlins (none of which were related to my bitchin’ self-installed stereo, thank you very much), I thought I’d move on to something more sensible. I bought a 1986 Pontiac Fiero GT and got my first speeding ticket in that car during the test drive. Not my first-ever ticket, mind you. That came behind the wheel of a Geo Metro hatchback I delivered pizza in during high school. I never planned to have this job. I was actually an aerospace engineering major in college, but calculus and I had a bad breakup. Considering how much better my English grades were than my calculus grades, I decided to stick to my strengths and write instead. When I made the switch, people kept asking me what I wanted to do with my life. I told them I’d like to write for a car magazine someday, not expecting it to actually happen. I figured I’d be in newspapers, maybe a magazine if I was lucky. Then this happened, which was slightly awkward because I grew up reading Car & Driver, but convenient since I don’t live in Michigan. Now I just try to make it through the day without adding any more names to the list of people who want to kill me and take my job.
