McLaren held a high-octane debut event for the 570S in New York last night, and the company used the occasion to reinforce its anti-SUV policy. Oh and while they were at it, they also mocked all the other lavish automakers that are currently preparing to build their first SUVs.
As you can see in the image above, which was published on Chris Harris’ tweeter account, Woking pulled a bit of trolling during their presentation. The slide we’re referring to includes the Aston Martin DBX concept, Bentley Bentayga (spy shot), Lamborghini Urus Concept, as well as a rendering of a Rolls-Royce SUV. Everything elegantly crossed with two Papaya Orange lines.
While Aston Martin and Rolls Royce are still beating around the crossover bush, Lamborghini is almost decided and Bentley already finds itself close to kicking off production.
Returning to McLaren, the company made it clear it would not milk the high ground clearance cash cow back in 2014. As we said, they only re-iterated that conclusion during the presentation of the 570S.
This is not just a matter of philosophy, but the Brits know they are too young on the market to allow themselves such a brand image dilution. So perhaps the angry SUV gods will curse McLaren to build such a vehicle one day, but it won’t happen anytime soon.
Of course, McLaren could bring us something with four seats, but the automaker has to materialize other plans before it can add another pair of seats. First of all, we’ll remind you the Sports Series still needs to other models besides the 570S until the range is complete.
Then we have the P15 project, which is expected to hit us in 2017. This will be an offering slotted in between the 675LT and the P1. The P15 will still have two seats and an engine in the middle, but it won’t pursue the P1’s hybrid path, simply because battery technology hasn’t evolved enough since McLaren launched its petrol-electric hypercar.
Still, we would like to see McLaren’s technical expertise being put to good SUV use, obviously not under its own badge. For instance, they could offer know-how to Tesla. Now that’s something we’d like to see.
While Aston Martin and Rolls Royce are still beating around the crossover bush, Lamborghini is almost decided and Bentley already finds itself close to kicking off production.
Returning to McLaren, the company made it clear it would not milk the high ground clearance cash cow back in 2014. As we said, they only re-iterated that conclusion during the presentation of the 570S.
This is not just a matter of philosophy, but the Brits know they are too young on the market to allow themselves such a brand image dilution. So perhaps the angry SUV gods will curse McLaren to build such a vehicle one day, but it won’t happen anytime soon.
Of course, McLaren could bring us something with four seats, but the automaker has to materialize other plans before it can add another pair of seats. First of all, we’ll remind you the Sports Series still needs to other models besides the 570S until the range is complete.
Then we have the P15 project, which is expected to hit us in 2017. This will be an offering slotted in between the 675LT and the P1. The P15 will still have two seats and an engine in the middle, but it won’t pursue the P1’s hybrid path, simply because battery technology hasn’t evolved enough since McLaren launched its petrol-electric hypercar.
Still, we would like to see McLaren’s technical expertise being put to good SUV use, obviously not under its own badge. For instance, they could offer know-how to Tesla. Now that’s something we’d like to see.
Lovely moment of levity last night at McLaren event where boss-man said 'no future SUV'. Hurrah to that! pic.twitter.com/09qZKQzty5
— chris harris (@harrismonkey) March 31, 2015