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McLaren Automotive passes 10,000-car milestone

McLaren 10k MF
McLaren Automotive COO Mike Flewitt with the 10,000th car

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20 December 2016

ONCE the McLaren badge related purely to the super exclusive World Championship-dominating pure race-bred Formula 1 and sports cars as campaigned by race team founder the late Bruce McLaren – but now McLaren Automotive is a brand with which you can do business motoring too.

From the early days of a racing workshop a stone’s throw from Woking station, McLaren has burst upon the world with its ultra modern centres producing a long succession of Formula 1 World Champions and the birth of McLaren Automotive, producing high performance customer cars.

And now it has celebrated the manufacture of its 10,000th car from the McLaren Production Centre in Woking.

The 10,000th car, a McLaren 570S finished in Ceramic Grey paintwork from the McLaren Special Operations ‘Defined’ palette, rolled out of the Production Centre just over five years after the first car, a McLaren 12C, was completed.

Commenting on the moment that the car left the Production Centre, McLaren Automotive chief executive officer Mike Flewitt said: “The production of the 10,000th McLaren is a significant milestone in the short history of the company.

2016 marked the introduction of the company’s new business plan, Track22, which sees the company investing £1billion in Research and Development to deliver 15 all-new cars or derivatives by the end of 2022, of which at least 50% will feature hybrid technology.

“The fact that it took us 42 months to build our 5,000th car and just 22 months to build the next 5,000 speaks volumes about the pace of development of the company. Much of that development is thanks to the introduction of the Sports Series family of cars and it’s therefore fitting that the 10,000th car is a McLaren 570S.”

In early 2016, a second shift was introduced into the McLaren Production Centre to cater for the increased volume thanks to the introduction of the Sports Series family, today comprising the 540C, 570S and 570GT.

This took capacity at the Production Centre from ten cars per day to 20 cars per day. 2016 also marked the announcement of the company’s third year of profitability in the first five years it has been producing cars – unprecedented in the automotive industry.

McLaren is also on target to almost double its sales this year  compared to 2015, from 1,654 cars last year to over 3,000 cars in 2016, of which over 90% will be exported. This volume increase is thanks, in large part, to the ramp up in production and success of the Sports Series models.

Like the McLaren Technology Centre, the McLaren Production Centre was designed by Foster + Partners and took 14 months to build, from breaking ground until the 18 July 2011 when the first car, a McLaren 12C, was approved for shipping.

Since then, the McLaren Production Centre has been the only location where McLaren cars have been built, from the initial 12C and 12C Spider, through to the 650S and 675LT in the Super Series, as well as each of the 375 highly-bespoke McLaren P1 cars.

Today, the McLaren Production Centre employs around 750 people out of a total of approximately 1,750 employed by McLaren Automotive.

The 10,000th car will be retained by the company in its Heritage Collection.

McLaren Automotive: The track record

McLaren Automotive is a British manufacturer of luxury, high-performance sports and super cars, located at the McLaren Technology Centre (MTC) in Woking, Surrey.

For the past 30 years, McLaren has pioneered the use of carbon fibre in vehicle production and since introducing a carbon chassis into racing and road cars with the 1981 McLaren MP4/1 and 1993 McLaren F1 sportscar respectively, McLaren has not built a car without a carbon fibre chassis.

Following the global launch of McLaren Automotive in 2010, the groundbreaking 12C was revealed in 2011, the 12C Spider in 2012, and the limited-run McLaren P1 went into production in 2013.

In keeping with its plan to introduce a new model each year, the company unveiled the 650S, in Coupé and Spider form in 2014, while 2015 proved to be a year of unprecedented growth of the product portfolio with five new models launched across the full range.

The strictly limited edition 675LT Coupé premiered at the Geneva Motor Show alongside the track-only McLaren P1 GTR which, with 1,000PS, became the most powerful model ever produced by the brand.

Rival for 911 and R8

The much-anticipated Sports Series became the third – and final – model tier in the McLaren range with the 570S Coupé and 540C Coupé debuting in New York and Shanghai respectively, less than one month apart.

The end of 2015 saw the launch of the fifth model, the 675LT Spider, which was as a direct response to customer demand. The year also saw the end of production for the first model in the Ultimate Series as the 375th McLaren P1 was completed, closing what had become a defining year for the British brand.

2016 continued where 2015 had left off with the introduction of the 570GT – a second bodystyle for the Sports Series and the most luxurious car McLaren has ever built, as well as the 570S GT4 and 570S Sprint track variants.

The year also marked the introduction of the company’s new business plan, Track22, which sees the company investing £1billion in Research and Development to deliver 15 all-new cars or derivatives by the end of 2022, of which at least 50% will feature hybrid technology.

The uplift in sales in 2016 also saw the launch of the second shift at the McLaren Production Centre as well as the company’s third year of profitability in just six years of trading.

McLaren Automotive
Production Centre staff with the 10,000th car

 

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