Currently reading: New £400k McLaren P15 supercar confirmed
McLaren chief reveals the first details of a new McLaren supercar to sit between the 12C and P1 in its expanding line-up

A new McLaren supercar to sit between the 12C and the P1 in an expanded line-up form the Woking firm is in the early stages development, McLaren Automotive chief executive Mike Flewitt has confirmed to Autocar.

Although company officials say the model, referred to as P15, is still "quite a long way off", it's been confirmed that the car will use a mid-mounted turbocharged engine, likely to be a heavily revised version of the 12C's twin-turbocharged 3.8-litre V8. Also confirmed is the now-familiar carbonfibre tub chassis, which sits at the core of all McLaren's road cars.

McLaren won't reveal more, saying that as the P15 is so early into its development, technology is likely to change before the model arrives in showrooms. Therefore its exact engine specifications, materials and electronic systems are unknown.

Company sources are keeping tight-lipped about the P15's other details, with new McLaren chief executive Mike Flewitt only saying it will be different than the company's other planned new arrival, a Porsche 911 Turbo rival known as P13, in its purpose and character.

Pricing for the two models will also differ wildly, with the P15 likely to go on sale for around £400,000. By comparison, McLaren is pitching its P13 at a price point of £120,000.

With the P13 pitched to account for between 2000 and 2500 cars per year, McLaren will soon have an annual output of more than 4000 cars over two shifts.

Several derivatives of the P13 are planned, including a Spider version and a stripped-out, extra-performance variant along the lines of the Porsche 911 GT3. In total, McLaren has the capacity to build 6000 cars annually over three shifts a day, but says it could grow to 7000 units per year if needed, possibly with the arrival of a P15 later in the decade. 

McLaren chairman Ron Dennis has previously said the company will launch “something of substance” every year, and it has so far stuck to its plan. Joining the range this year will be an enhanced version of the 12C, which will be sold as a stand-alone model. That car has been developed to deliver on-road performance to rival the Ferrari 458 Speciale. The new model uses a modified version of the 12C's engine producing around 650bhp.

Flewitt has also hinted at a potential P1 successor in the long-term future, but said that a new game-changing range-topper would only be likely after battery and electric motor technology have taken significant leaps forward.

Read Autocar's review of the McLaren P1.

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Steve Cropley

Steve Cropley Autocar
Title: Editor-in-chief

Steve Cropley is the oldest of Autocar’s editorial team, or the most experienced if you want to be polite about it. He joined over 30 years ago, and has driven many cars and interviewed many people in half a century in the business. 

Cropley, who regards himself as the magazine’s “long stop”, has seen many changes since Autocar was a print-only affair, but claims that in such a fast moving environment he has little appetite for looking back. 

He has been surprised and delighted by the generous reception afforded the My Week In Cars podcast he makes with long suffering colleague Matt Prior, and calls it the most enjoyable part of his working week.

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RednBlue 26 January 2014

Dinosaurs...

"Dinosaurs"?? All these cars are totally useless. A waste of resources. Which are scarce by definition. The differences between a V12 and a V8 turbo do not look that meaningful, from this point of view. These are cars for petrolheads, or some kind of idiots (we all are like that). But, please, do not use the environmental argument. McLaren has only an outsourced (Ricardo) V8 turbo just because they can't afford a full line of engines at this stage. And that's it. Other pathetic ways to justify the use of the same engine and same tub in cars from 100k to 1m are not viable, here. They do need to grow.
hare1964 26 January 2014

hybrid

I fully expect this 400k Mac to have a more productionised version of the hybrid in the p1. No need to offer inefficient v12 and other such dinosaurs. Just need to offer different drivetrains to achieve performance.
Also, the carbon tub will get developed by mclaren but as the concept it is pretty much head and shoulders better than anything else on the market, there's not a lot to improve i guess.
TBC 26 January 2014

Range

I agree with TS7, by 2015, the P1 will have finished it's run, and McLaren will be in need of an apex car, something that the P15 should fill nicely (hybrid power train with at least 800bhp). Having a three car range (P13, 12C & P15), and being able to spin-off specials will allow McLaren to reap maximum profit for it's investment, thus providing the capital to create the next generation. And for all those that say that Ferrari make better cars, well, maybe they do, and maybe not, but one thing for sure is, McLaren don't seem to have any problems selling their products. And that, as anyone in business knows, is what counts.