The first regular production hybrid McLaren supercar now has a name – Artura.
McLaren Automotive has recently announced its next generation regular production hybrid supercar will be called the Artura.
Following from the use of proper names like what is currently only seen on its limited-run bespoke series of multi-million dollar hypercars, the newly-christened Artura looks to be the first in an all-new naming convention for the British boutique supercar manufacturer. Thereby marking the end of the alpha-numeric naming system McLaren traditionally uses on its regular supercars. A tradition that dates back to the first production McLaren supercar, the MP4-12C, which first debut only 9 years prior.
This is of course by design, as the new Artura is supposed to mark the beginning of the next chapter in McLaren’s supercar portfolio. This next-gen hybrid regular-run supercar is apparently going to be entirely new from the ground up, being based on an all-new platform architecture that is supposedly ‘optimised for electrification’ and to feature an all new design that ‘enables a class-leading weight advantage’.
The headline news of this new Artura however is perhaps going to be its powertrain. As the hybrid production supercar tagline suggests, the Artura will mark McLaren’s transition from the tried and tested twin-turbocharged petrol V8 engines, that is currently in all their production models to date, to a new lightweight High-Performance Hybrid powertrain. This new hybrid powertrain will apparently consist of a twin-turbocharged V6 engine, and of course the inevitable brace of high-power electric motors.
Though it will be the first time that McLaren will debut a regular-run hybrid supercar, it is however not the first time McLaren has dabbled in the art of electrification. It was this Woking supercar maker after all, who made up a third of the hypercar holy trinity back in the early 2010s with their P1. More recently too, the 250 mph (403 km/h) hybrid Speedtail Hyper-GT entered production as the fastest McLaren ever. According to McLaren then, the Artura supposedly builds on both these two pioneering hybrid hypercars to bring ‘electrification to the supercar class’.
Thus far however, not very much else is known about this upcoming hybrid supercar, with McLaren promising that more information is to come in the near future. One thing is for certain though, and that is the era of the fully petrol-powered supercar is quickly coming to an end.
PRESS RELEASE: McLaren Automotive will bring the full force of its expertise in hybrid powertrain engineering to the supercar class next year with the introduction of the new Artura, a High-Performance Hybrid (HPH) developed with the benefit of more than half a century of McLaren knowledge, experience and engineering achievements in race and road cars.
All-new in every respect, the Artura marks the beginning of a new era for the pioneering British company. Building on the expertise in electrification first showcased in the McLaren P1 hybrid hypercar unveiled in 2012 and more recently the Speedtail Hyper-GT, which entered production this year as McLaren’s fastest ever car with a top speed of 403km/h (250mph), the Artura is McLaren’s first High-Performance Hybrid series production supercar.
“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.” – Mike Flewitt, Chief Executive Officer, McLaren Automotive
The new Artura marks the debut of an all-new compact twin-turbocharged V6 petrol engine, designed to combine with an electric motor in a new lightweight High-Performance Hybrid powertrain that retains the performance benefits of McLaren’s larger capacity V8 engines and has the additional attraction of improved torque response at low engine speeds to deliver scintillating acceleration. The Artura can also run on electric power alone for everyday emission-free urban journeys.
The first car to be built on an all-new, platform architecture optimised for electrification and designed and manufactured in the UK at the McLaren Composites Technology Centre, the Artura furthers McLaren’s commitment to super-lightweight engineering principles that have their roots in motorsport. The additional mass of the High-Performance Hybrid system, for example, has been largely offset by the application of weight-saving technologies throughout the chassis, body and powertrain. Additionally, the McLaren Carbon Lightweight Architecture (MCLA) at the heart of the Artura not only enables the car’s class-leading weight advantage, it is also the base for the dynamic excellence inherent in every McLaren.
