Woking’s hybrid supercar might not be long for this world.
It looks as though the Artura could be living on borrowed time. According to a new report from Automotive News, McLaren plans to discontinue its hybrid supercar in 2028, just six years after it finally reached customers. The report cites a person briefed on the company’s plans, although no one from Woking has officially announced the model’s demise.
That wouldn’t be a huge surprise, though. The Artura had a particularly rough start, with its market launch delayed multiple times before production finally got underway in 2022. Once deliveries began, the new hybrid supercar continued to suffer from quality issues. Things got so bad that McLaren eventually stopped deliveries to address the problems.
Then-CEO Michael Leiters acknowledged that the Artura wasn’t mature enough when it was originally supposed to reach customers. At the end of 2022, the former head honcho admitted that “we already had a significant delay in our production line at the time and we reduced [production] to zero [cars] a day to fix our quality problems.”
McLaren Artura Spider
If the report is accurate, McLaren will therefore retire a model that was supposed to play an important role in bringing a younger, more tech-focused audience to the brand. The Artura combined a twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter V6 with an electric motor and represented a major technological step for McLaren when it arrived.
Its replacement strategy appears to be quite different. McLaren is reportedly preparing a new hybrid coupe, codenamed “P34,” for 2027. Expect an electrified powertrain built around a twin-turbo V6 with over 800 hp combined output, far more than the Artura’s total 671-hp hybrid punch. It would arrive shortly after the 720S/750S/765LT line ends with the 788HS and before the Artura bows out. That could make the latter’s eventual departure less of a traditional cancellation and more of a reshuffling of McLaren’s lineup.
If recent reports are to be believed, the company is preparing a new generation of products under CEO Nick Collins, including an SUV and a GT-styled model. The former will fill a void in the lineup, while the latter is allegedly a “front-engine sedan-like gran tourer,” supposedly a replacement for the GTS.
Meanwhile, McLaren isn’t confirming the Artura’s alleged 2028 exit. Motor1 has contacted the company for comment and will update this story if the automaker responds.
Motor1’s Take: The Artura was supposed to usher McLaren into a new era, but its launch was anything but smooth. Delays and teething problems aren’t unusual when a company introduces a complicated new powertrain, yet the Artura’s troubled start became difficult to ignore.
McLaren has clearly invested heavily in fixing the car since then, and today’s Artura is a much more mature product than the one that arrived in 2022. Still, if the reported 2028 retirement comes to pass, it would give the Artura a relatively short run by modern supercar standards. At the same time, reports of a new “P34” suggest a clean-sheet successor is already in the works.
More From McLaren:
Source:
Automotive News
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motor1.com?
– The Motor1.com Team