Img Credit: McLaren Automotive

For the few who don’t know, McLaren Cars were founded in 1985 which later became McLaren Automotive. Today, they remain a successful British car manufacturer based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, Surrey where their primary focus is on sports cars.

In 2017, McLaren constructed a £50m McLaren Composites Technology Centre (MCTC) at the Advanced Manufacturing Park between Sheffield and Rotherham. The facility is responsible for building carbon fibre chassis for all McLaren road cars.

McLaren Automotive became a 100% owned subsidiary of the wider McLaren Group in July 2017 and recently celebrated selling their 20,000^th car. It will be hand-assembled at the McLaren Production Centre (MPC) in Surrey.

McLaren Automotive Milestone

McLaren’s 20,000^th car was a right-hand drive McLaren 600LT Spider in a beautiful Chicane Grey from their Sports Series. The Coupe variant was only launched last year as the next step in McLaren’s ‘Longtail’ journey and already the production slots have been filled.

This impressive milestone represents a significant achievement for British auto manufacturing in general but especially for McLaren. And all this only came eight years after the first road-legal McLaren left the production floor in July 2011.

McLaren’s Track25 Business Plan

While McLaren only produced around 4,800 cars in 2018, their output remains at 5,000 a year for the next decade. At that point, they say it will increase to 6,000 units before ending the current Track25 business plan to maintain exclusivity. The idea behind the new Track25 plan is that McLaren will go completely hybrid by 2025 launching 18 new cars and a successor to the popular P1.

McLaren Product Portfolio

McLaren Automotive has over 2,300 employees and their diverse product portfolio has generated more consumer interest in the brand’s bespoke McLaren Special Operations division. Fact is, this has contributed significantly to the McLaren Group’s overall £1.2bn revenue in 2018.

In an attempt to meet the rising global demand for McLaren vehicles, the automaker introduced a second production shift in 2016. This decision worked out perfectly as their production numbers doubled from around 10 cars to more than 20 per day. They export most of the vehicles (+-90%) built in Woking to over 32 markets all across the globe.

McLaren Production Centre

Foster + Partners designed the McLaren Production Centre and took just 14 months to build which started in 2010. Then, on July 18 2011, the first car approved for shipping was a McLaren 12C. The rest, as they say, is ancient history as the company is only going from strength to strength. To read more McLaren news, head over to their website for all the latest updates and developments.

Comments From McLaren Executives

According to Mike Flewitt, CEO for McLaren Automotive: “Achieving our 20,000th car built is an important milestone for McLaren Automotive. Last year we hand-assembled just over 4,800 cars and we plan to maintain around 5,000 cars a year for the immediate future. While demand for our products continues to grow, we aim to balance that to maintain exclusivity for our brand and our customers. It is fitting that we celebrate this achievement with a 600LT Spider which has been a huge success for us with all production slots for the coupe variant now sold out.”

Chief Operating Officer at McLaren Automotive, Dr. Jens Ludmann, added: “It’s testament to the hard work, dedication and commitment from our McLaren Production Centre employees that we’re now able to produce 20 cars a day across many different vehicle types and variants.”

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