McLaren CEO Nick Collins suggests an electric SUV could be in development, leveraging technology from Chinese EV maker NioThe company's merger with EV startup Forseven earlier in 2025 brought existing electric SUV designs into McLaren's portfolioDespite previous commitments to combustion engines, financial realities are pushing McLaren toward electrification and SUVs Right. Sit down. Take a deep breath. Maybe pour yourself something strong, because I'm about to tell you something that will make your brain hurt. McLaren, the company that builds some of the most focused, uncompromising supercars on the planet, is apparently building an SUV. And it might be electric. I know. I know. It's like hearing that Gordon Ramsay has opened a McDonald's franchise, or that David Attenborough has taken up monster truck racing. It simply doesn't compute. But here we are, living in a world where McLaren, a brand that not so long ago proclaimed it would absolutely, definitely, categorically never build an SUV, is now apparently doing exactly that. The latest whispers come from AutoExpress, who had a chat with McLaren CEO Nick Collins. Now, Collins is being careful not to confirm anything outright, probably because he knows full well that half of McLaren's fanbase will spontaneously combust upon hearing this news. But if you read between the lines, and I've become quite good at reading between lines over the years, the message is clear: an electric McLaren SUV is coming, and it's coming soon. Why McLaren is going electric (and tall) Let's connect the dots, shall we? First, McLaren's new ownership structure links them directly to Nio, the Chinese EV performance company that's been making rather impressive electric cars while most Western manufacturers were still figuring out where to put the batteries. Collins himself told AutoExpress, "We have access to certain Nio technologies with our licence. And that's an amazing opportunity, because, frankly, some of the best automotive technology in the world is in China." That's not the sort of thing you say if you're planning to stick with good old-fashioned petrol engines.Then there's the small matter of McLaren merging with Forseven earlier this year, an EV company that apparently already had designs for an electric SUV sitting in a drawer somewhere. So now McLaren owns those designs. It would be rather odd to pay for something and then not use it, wouldn't it? Add to this the fact that McLaren is now stuffed to the gills with executives who have extensive SUV experience. Collins himself spent two decades at Ford and Jaguar Land Rover, where building tall vehicles was basically the entire business model. The company's former CEO, Michel Leiters, had already been warming everyone up to the idea of a McLaren SUV before all these ownership changes happened. The writing, as they say, is on the wall. And it's written in electrons rather than hydrocarbons. This represents a rather dramatic about-face from what we heard just last year. When we spoke with McLaren engineers and executives in 2024, the vibe was crystal clear: any McLaren SUV would have combustion power, most likely a version of the company's twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V8. That made sense. That felt like McLaren. An electric SUV feels like someone else entirely. But here's the uncomfortable truth that nobody in the supercar world wants to admit: building only loud, impractical, two-seat supercars doesn't pay the bills anymore. Collins knows this. When CarBuzz spoke with him at Monterey Car Week this year, he put it rather plainly: "You look at some of the customers we had here in Pebble. They love McLaren and have a McLaren, but when they want more than two seats, they're driving a Porsche or a Range Rover or something else." In other words, McLaren is losing customers to brands that offer practicality alongside performance. An SUV fixes that problem. An electric SUV fixes that problem while also satisfying increasingly strict emissions regulations and tapping into the massive Chinese market, where EVs dominate the landscape. So there we have it. McLaren, a company born from racing, built on the principle of uncompromising performance, is about to build a tall, practical, probably quite heavy electric vehicle. It's the automotive equivalent of watching your rebellious teenage nephew grow up, get a sensible job, and start talking about pension plans. Necessary, perhaps. Inevitable, certainly. But it stings nonetheless. The million-dollar question is whether McLaren can pull this off without losing what makes them special. Can they build an electric SUV that still feels like a McLaren? Or will it just be another premium electric crossover with a fancy badge? Collins seems confident. He told CarBuzz that McLaren "has got all the ingredients, we just have to unpack that. And the only thing that can get in the way is ourselves." Time will tell whether he's right, or whether this is the moment McLaren trades its soul for market share.
