McLaren Confirms Working On A Hybrid P1 Successor – 0-60mph In 2.3 Seconds
The McLaren P1 officially put the marque on the map when it became part of the Holy Trinity of cars upon its release in 2013. Alongside the La Ferrari and Porsche 918, it became a poster car for enthusiasts across the world. Now, McLaren has officially confirmed that it’s working on a successor.
The bright minds at Woking have decided again on a hybrid powertrain for this hypercar after Jamie Corstorphine, global marketing director, told us that an EV would be too heavy. According to him, the technology for a full EV just isn’t viable, yet. This doesn’t mean McLaren is backing down on electrification however, because alongside this hybrid supercar will be coming a host of other hybrid machines.
Mike Flewit, McLaren CEO, told Car and Driver that the next generation platform will be revealed by the British car company next Spring. At the same time, we’ll find out more about the hybrid powertrain that will be powering this new hypercar.
This new era for McLaren will be revealed towards the end of 2020, with the cars hitting the market early the year after, and will mark the beginning of the complete switch to hybrid power for every model. Every McLaren will be using electric motors within the next 3-4 years, offering at least 20 miles of electric range.
One of these hypercars has been slated as having a 0-60mph time of 2.3 seconds, which is almost 3 tenths of a second faster than the P1. You can thank an AWD system for this, with the combustion engine powering the rear wheels and an electric motor powering the fronts, unlike the P1 which was simply rear-wheel driven.
According to Flewitt, this hybrid system will only add 29kg of weight to the car, which will be masked completely by the extra low-end torque, and a smaller V6 engine is also being designed to further lower weight over the current 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 that’s currently being used by McLaren’s halo cars such as the 720S.
McLaren is obviously hard at work, and judging by the cars they’ve been showing us lately, this new step forward into hybrid power is going to yet again define the best of the motoring industry.
