British sports car maker McLaren is all set to merge with start-up company Forseven. While the move secures the company’s future in terms of capital, technology and more, it will also enable an expansion in product lineup. Forseven is a British startup company that has been quietly assembling a team of more than 700 professionals from the auto industry. These include big-name designers, engineers and executives from rival British car companies. This is in preparation to launch a range of luxury car models under a new brand name. What McLaren and Forseven have in common is the Abu Dhabi government-backed investment company CYVN Holdings which facilitated the merger operating under the McLaren Automotive name. This will in turn enable the under-development models at Forseven to be launched in the market under the McLaren brand name. This comes as a win-win for both companies, as it will give Forseven easier access to the market and McLaren the product expansion it is looking for to compete with the likes of Ferrari, Lamborghini, Aston Martin etc. The new combined company, McLaren Group Holdings, will be led by Forseven CEO Nick Collins who told Autocar, “We’re about to embark on the most exciting British automotive story in decades”. The Forseven name will, however, be short-lived, as it had never been intended as a customer-facing brand, and will eventually cease to exist. “It’s just a holding name, and we’ve been building at an incredible pace,” said Collins, who took up the role of Forseven CEO in January last year. Details on the McLaren models of this new era post-merger will be revealed later this year, and Collins promises a big event for the announcement. In the meantime, the company says work will “commence immediately” on a six-month turnaround of the existing McLaren Automotive business. Collins declined to give any model-specific details but said that it would be a range of luxury cars at higher price points, that would broaden Mclaren’s current portfolio. The models being developed aren’t only EVs, so McLaren’s new models in other segments will include high-performance internal combustion engines. Collins promised cutting-edge technology for the new McLarens and would “play a huge role” in everything the brand does, including in the hardware and software underpinning the car. Rumours of a Mclaren SUV have been strongly doing the rounds in the past, and with this merger, that might soon become a reality. With Ferrari, Lamborghini, Aston Martin, Bentley and Rolls-Royce going the SUV way, McLaren would certainly not like to be left behind. Source: Autocar UK
