In a shocking revelation, Mclaren has joined the EV race. The British supercar brand has just announced plans to produce an electric-powered supercar. The British marquee made the big announcement this week.
According to Autocar, the Woking-based outfit is joining the electric vehicle race by developing its own all-electric supercar that will arrive after McLaren’s F1 successor. The British automaker has already codename for its planned all-electric supercar, the codenamed BP23. The company hasn’t made any further comment about what the codename BP23 stands for.
McLaren goes electric
The news has come as a big surprise to everyone. The British automaker is known in the auto world as an exclusive producer of the high-performance luxury sports car.
According to TopSpeed, the McLaren’s EV effort was initially meant to be a development mule for future McLaren technology. However, the website reports that the production model is really a part of the automaker’s big plans. The British automaker plans to build five units of the unnamed electric supercar and then ask some of its customers to try the new car as part of the company’s development program.
The unnamed EV is expected to be classified under the company’s super exclusives Ultimate Series, a division within the company that also includes the iconic supercar McLaren P1. There are also rumors and speculations that the planned electric supercar will feature some design cues and technology borrowed from the McLaren P1.
Autocar reports that the planned electric supercar will have the same performance characteristics as the McLaren 675LT, a top-notch McLaren model. The McLaren 675LT is currently the fastest car on the Top Gear list with a time of 1.13.7, beating the notorious Pagani Huayra by just a fraction of a second.
The unnamed supercar is expected to use a hybrid system and will likely pair with a 4.0-litre V8 engine.
The British company also claims that the unnamed supercar will top every other McLaren production model in terms of power and speed.
McLaren is no longer stranger when it comes to producing electric motors and electric-powered racing cars. The British marquee has also been a supplier of electric powertrains for Formula E, a class of auto racing that uses only electric-powered racing cars.
The only challenge here is whether the company can deliver a proper hypercar performance experience in the planned electric supercar. McLaren didn’t detail much information about the supercar's release date, but the EV is expected to arrive after the McLaren P15’s launch later this year.
Other McLaren-related news and announcements
As mentioned earlier on McLaren’s official website, the company has just announced gaming partnership with iRacing for the upcoming World’s Fastest Gamer competition, McLaren’s virtual racing game series. The racing game qualification series will run from September 12 to October 9 and will use the iconic McLaren Honda MP4-30 race cars on select F1 locations, which include the Circuit of America, Monza, and Interlagos.
The racing game will also have multiple races each day, providing thousands of motorsports fans the opportunity to get a shot to the final races, which will be held at the McLaren Technology Center this coming November.Finally, the qualifying races will be open to all players and will be broadcast live via iRacing’s official website.
