McLaren Automotive has revealed an all-new lightweight vehicle architecture that will be at the core of its next generation of electrified supercars, the first of which is due for launch in 2021. The architecture has been designed specifically to accommodate hybrid powertrains, and the company has indicated that it also plans to transition to 100% electrified supercars.
The architecture has been entirely engineered, developed and produced in-house in the UK at McLaren’s £50m Composites Technology Centre (MCTC) in the UK. According to the company, the flexible vehicle architecture makes use of “innovative, world-first processes and techniques” to minimise mass, reduce overall vehicle weight, and enhance safety attributes.
“The new ground-breaking vehicle architecture is every bit as revolutionary as the MonoCell chassis we introduced with the company’s first car, the 12C, when we first embarked on making production vehicles a decade ago,” said Mike Flewitt, CEO of McLaren Automotive.
“This new, ultra-lightweight carbon fibre chassis boasts greater structural integrity and higher levels of quality than ever before, with our new MCTC facility quickly becoming recognised as a global centre of excellence in composite materials science and manufacturing,” he added. “For us, light-weighting and electrification go hand-in-hand to achieve better performance as well as more efficient vehicles.”
