McLaren has previously told us it expects that half the cars it makes will carry some kind of hybrid system by 2022, and a conversation with company CEO Mike Flewitt at the Geneva auto show has added some more detail to those bold plans.
The first hybrid will come in the upcoming BP23, which—as well as having a three-seat layout reminiscent of that of the original McLaren F1—is set to become the most powerful roadgoing McLaren ever, outgunning even the 903-hp system total of the mighty P1.
“It will be a very different car,” Flewitt told Car and Driver. “The BP23 is going to be a very quick GT car, so you won’t see us racing it around tracks or cutting the roof off to make a spider. It’s a sleek, aero-efficient low-drag GT car with three-seat packaging, and it will have our most advanced hybrid engine going in, so it will be extraordinarily quick.”
Flewitt was predictably reluctant to discuss actual numbers, as “that would spoil the surprise,” but he broadly hinted that we can expect a significant power hike. “If you think that the base engine that went into the P1 has now developed into the 4.0-liter in the 720S, then that side [of the powertrain] will clearly evolve. And it’s going to be a different battery pack.”
McLaren 570S
A V-6 Hybrid for Sports Series?
But it’s the company’s other new hybrid unit that is likely to have the bigger impact, with Flewitt confirming that it will be offered across an entire model range from launch. We believe this will be the next Sports Series model, the replacement for the 540C, 570S, and 570GT. Although McLaren hasn’t confirmed when it plans to replace the Sports Series, which was launched in 2015, it has confirmed that its new factory in Sheffield, U.K., which will build next-generation carbon-fiber tubs, will come on stream in 2020, with the next Sports Series the obvious first recipient. We’re also predicting on the basis of some informed guesswork that the new hybrid unit will almost certainly use a turbocharged V-6 in conjunction with its e-motor.
Flewitt refused to comment on cylinder count, but he did admit that McLaren isn’t fixed on any engine configuration. “For us, it’s all about the attributes,” he said. “If we can get the performance, then it doesn’t matter if it’s 12 or 10 or eight or six. That’s not to say the whole world thinks like that; I still get questions about ‘Why can’t we get a V-12?’ We’re all enthusiasts, we’d love a manual-shifting V-12, but that’s 20 years out of date. So we’re not wedded to cylinder count, but we are wedded very much to performance and excitement.”
The additional weight of a hybrid system, and Flewitt’s determination to limit any increase in mass in future models, would also seem to make it almost certain that a lighter internal-combustion engine will be part of the next-generation powertrain, in order to get close to these aggressive weight targets.
“With the P1, hybridization added about 140 kilograms [308 pounds],” he admitted. “To be weight neutral, we have to find 140 kilograms to come out. That’s pretty hard, but if we can get close to it, we can have both the weight benefit and the performance benefit.”
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