McLaren will close the curtain on a completely new hybrid entry mid-next year. It is a completely new rip nose that heralds the end of the Sports Series.
The McLaren range can be divided into various ‘Series’. Cars like the Senna, Speedtail and Elva are part of the supreme Ultimate Series, while the 720S, 720S Spider and 765LT are part of the Super Series. One step below that is the Sports Series, a label under which McLaren carries a series of less extreme entries such as the 570S and 600LT. At the end of this year, the last copies of the 620R will roll off the production line, bringing the current Sports Series to an end. In the middle of next year, McLaren will draw the curtain on a completely new supercar that has to fill the gap of the lost Sports Series and that will soon position the newcomer between the GT and the 720S.
That as yet unnamed newcomer is referred to by McLaren as a High Performance Hybrid (HPH) supercar and that sounds promising. In any case, the omens are good. The hybrid novice, for example, is built around a completely new carbon fiber base, the so-called McLaren Carbon Lightweight Architecture. That basis, incidentally, you will encounter future McLarens than just the announced hybrid newcomer. McLaren already dares to say something striking about the powertrain of the ‘HPH’. The car to be launched next year will be equipped with a V6. Indeed, a six-cylinder. It is the first time in modern McLaren history that the brand does not spoon an eight or twelve cylinder into a car. The petrol engine works together with an electric motor, but McLaren is still tight-lipped about the power of that electric unit. We are aiming for the new hybrid McLaren to be a plug-in hybrid, as McLaren speaks of a ‘medium electric range’.
As a bonus, McLaren is releasing two images of the ‘HPH’. The model is clearly recognizable as McLaren. This is partly due to the design of the front and the placement of the exhaust tailpipes between the rear lights. These rear lights also have some similarities with those of the aforementioned GT.