These days, Suhlmann is on a mission to more clearly delineate McLaren’s model line-up so customers can better distinguish them apart.
“If we want to grow the portfolio, I feel very strongly that we need to separate the models from each other more,” he said.
“Like a family, you have a family face, but every member of the family is different, looks different and should have a different character and you need to see that [distinction], but you still see it as one family. And with the signature elements I explained earlier, it gives my team a lot of freedom to do that,” Suhlmann added.
Does this mean the family might soon welcome the birth of a McLaren SUV, like its rivals Lamborghini has done with the Urus and more recently, Ferrari with the Purosangue?
While Suhlmann can neither confirm nor deny these rumours, he does say this: “We also talk about shared performance, and performance for us is something more than just two seats.”
“We are now studying different ways of how we work, but everything will stay true to the brand and stay true to the DNA, also in terms of being lightweight and in terms of performance. This is our core, and we will not veer away from that,” he revealed.
HOW ABOUT A FULLY ELECTRIC MCLAREN?
There’s also been talk that the company is working on a fully-electric McLaren, following the successful launch of its production plug-in hybrid, the McLaren Artura, in 2022, as well as the McLaren Artura Spider open-top version this year.
“I think we are very open,” Suhlmann further hinted. “This is also quite important for us, and these are very exciting times at the moment.”
