McLaren is getting ready to move into the hybrid age.
The hybrid-powered 2021 McLaren Artura will debut next week, ending the twin-turbo V8 era started with the MP4-12C in 2011.
Unlike the brand’s previous Sport and Super Series cars, the Artura will be plug-in hybrid powered. The teaser below reveals the car will have a 32km electric range.
The hybrid supercar will be powered by an all-new twin-turbocharged petrol V6 engine and will offer a pure EV drive mode suitable for “everyday emission-free urban journeys”.
Along with a hybrid powertrain, the Artura will debut the new McLaren Carbon Lightweight Architecture (MCLA), developed and manufactured at the McLaren Composites Technology Centre in Sheffield.
MCLA, designed from the ground up to accommodate hybrid powertrains, will underpin other hybrid supercars “over the coming years”.
McLaren says the additional weight of the hybrid system has been largely offset through the application of weight-saving technologies in the chassis and powertrain, while the new twin-turbocharged V6 and electric motor offer comparable performance to outgoing V8-powered models but with superior torque at low engine speeds.
The Artura has been spied testing with little in the way of camouflage, revealing styling that’s an evolution of McLaren’s current generation design language with side detailing similar to the 570S and tail lights reminiscent of the GT’s.
McLaren has offered hybrid powertrains before but only in the extremely low-volume P1 and Speedtail, both of which employed twin-turbocharged V8 engines.
McLaren isn’t alone in moving from bent-eight power in its supercars, as the world’s emissions standards get tighter.
The F8 Tributo is a farewell for Ferrari’s twin-turbocharged V8 engine, and indeed the idea of an entry-level Prancing Horse with a V8, as it prepares to move to a V6 in its next-generation cars.
