“Never” is a long time. Just ask the likes of Aston Martin, Bentley, Maserati and Rolls-Royce, all of which have recently built an SUV or are in the process of doing so.
But British automaker McLaren has again stressed that it has no plans to jump on the SUV bandwagon, even if entering the fast-growing segment makes financial sense for many other manufacturers (again, just ask Porsche).
Why not? Well, Wayne Bruce, McLaren group communications director, says the answer is threefold.
“There are three reasons we will not make an SUV,” Bruce told Carscoops. “First, we are focused on our sports cars, which are selling quite well; limited editions that are all sold out and MSO specials.
“Second, for the past three years, the company [has made] a profit and, though we will roll out new models like the 570 Spider in 2017, we will cap our annual production to around 5 000 units,” explained Bruce.
“And, finally, our customers simply do not want a McLaren SUV,” he stated.
Fair enough. And long may that continue, we say.
Of course, this is not the first time McLaren has made its position on SUVs clear. In March 2015, for example, at the unveiling of 570S, Jolyon Nash, the brand’s executive director for global marketing and sales, said that McLaren had “ruled out” building an SUV. And the same was said before that, in 2014.