Wow, McLaren Automotive soon with Chinese engines?

The Bahraini owner of McLaren is tired of the losses and is frightened by the upcoming electric shift, preferring to get rid of it.

The timing is right. While McLaren has been racking up wins in Formula 1, something that hasn’t happened in years, the English sports car manufacturer is at the peak of the… sports wave. In showrooms, the outlook is less glorious, to the point where the Bahraini sovereign fund, Mumtalakat, has announced the sale of 100% of McLaren’s automotive activities to another investment fund, CYVN Holdings, based in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates).

To maintain a connection with Formula 1, CYVN Holdings also specifies that it will take a minority stake in the McLaren group.

The fear of electric?

In fact, Mumtalakat no longer believes in McLaren and its ability to find new customers, let alone in its future with the advent of electric vehicles. Porsche is an example with a decline in sales of its electric vehicles, which are extremely costly to develop. Does McLaren have the necessary strength to navigate this shift? In doubt, Mumtalakat prefers to sell and cash in.

It’s worth noting that McLaren is caught in a bind: it is not fully developing its combustion engines (rumors suggest they are using modified Nissan blocks) and has already announced it will stop combustion engine production by 2030. This announcement is somewhat demagogic when a large part of its clientele resides in the Emirates and will remain loyal to the abundant flowing gasoline…

McLaren with Chinese engines?

So why does CYVN Holdings not share the same concerns as Mumtalakat? Simply because by anticipating the electric shift, this fund has already taken stakes in a Chinese electric vehicle player, NIO. Naturally, in the minds of the executives, it will be crucial to leverage synergies.

Therefore, can we already assert that future electric McLarens will have a heart Made in China? Everything points to that, but things will never be presented that way to customers. This is a model similar to Rimac with Porsche and Bugatti, the Croatian electric supercar specialist who pulled off the deal of the century by exchanging shares in his company for others in these two Volkswagen group brands. Why? To share his expertise and accelerate the skill development of Porsche and Bugatti.

Tomorrow, NIO (which sold 150,000 vehicles in the first 9 months of 2024) will do so with McLaren.

And you, what do you think of this sale of McLaren and its electric future?

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