Official: McLaren will invest £500m in the UK to build a performance SUV

McLaren has confirmed that it will invest £500m to expand its manufacturing and engineering operations in the UK, with the cash creating “at least 1,000 direct and indirect jobs across McLaren's UK operations by 2032”.

The investment (which forms part of a larger commitment by shareholder L’IMAD, a sovereign investor of the Government of Abu Dhabi) will enable McLaren to build its new ‘performance SUV’ here in the UK.

Sounds like that long-awaited SUV will get a hybrid powertrain too, because we’re told that “for the first time in its history, McLaren Automotive’s future powertrains will be designed and built in-house, starting with two new engines and transmissions. This will support the company’s hybrid engine strategy".

The number of cars that McLaren can build will increase thanks to the investment, with a doubling of the manufacturing workforce and a new assembly facility planned somewhere on our shores. Both the McLaren Production Centre in Woking and the McLaren Composites Technology Centre in South Yorkshire will also be expanded. The latter is where the company makes its carbon tubs and will almost double in size. Oh, and it has recently opened the McLaren Creation Centre in Bicester (for design and innovation) and a testing facility in the Midlands.

“This investment gives us the platform to grow, develop and build on what makes us distinctive, while investing in the people, technologies and products that will keep us competitive for decades to come,” said Nick Collins, big boss of McLaren Group Holdings and McLaren Automotive.

“McLaren Automotive is doubling down on Britain, keeping the design, the engineering and the building of every future car here, and taking on a thousand more people to do it,” added big boss of… the UK, Andy Burnham.

“Their investment will create high-quality apprenticeships, jobs and drive growth far beyond their factory gates. It is how you get skilled work, decent wages and pride back into a place. It’s this kind of partnership between government and business that will help us reindustrialise communities and make every part of Britain better off. I want young people to see that and know there is a future for them in making things, wherever they grew up.”