McLaren Automotive wowed the world with its P1 hybrid hypercar, and with the Artura its hybrid powertrain engineering expertise will be become (slightly) more accessible as it will be applied to the Artura, a High-Performance Hybrid (HPH) supercar. The Artura is an all-new design for McLaren and marks the beginning of a new era for the company, which is well-timed as the UK Government has just announced a ban on the sale of new cars and vans powered wholly by petrol and diesel from 2030.
When it launches in 2021, the Artura will be powered by an all-new compact twin-turbocharged V6 petrol engine, designed to combine with an electric motor in a lightweight HPH powertrain that could match the performance of McLaren’s larger capacity V8 engines, with improved torque response at low engine speeds. The Artura can also run on electric power alone for emission-free urban journeys.
The model will also be the first car to be built on an all-new McLaren platform architecture – the McLaren Carbon Lightweight Architecture (MCLA) – optimised for electrification and designed and manufactured in the UK at the McLaren Composites Technology Centre. The platform will be constructed in accordance with super-lightweight engineering principles inspired by motorsport. The additional mass of the HPH system, for example, has been largely offset by the application of weight-saving technologies throughout the chassis, body and powertrain.
“Every element of the Artura is all-new – from the platform architecture and every part of the High-Performance Hybrid powertrain, to the exterior body, interior and cutting-edge driver interface – but it draws on decades of McLaren experience in pioneering super-lightweight race and road car technologies to bring all of our expertise in electrification to the supercar class,” stated Mike Flewitt, CEO of McLaren Automotive.
