Despite early hesitation, McLaren says its Australian customers have come around to its hybrid powertrain thanks to the Artura.
British supercar brand McLaren says its Australian customers have come around to the brand’s hybrid powertrains.
Speaking at a recent event for its W1 hypercar, McLaren’s Australia and New Zealand sales boss Dan Hotchin told Drive that Australia’s love affair with the V8 engine was the main source of customer hesitation.
“I think with Australia, there is an obvious love for V8s that everyone has, but ultimately the world is moving to hybrids,” he said.
“From an Australian perspective, people are certainly becoming more accepting of it. I think there was definitely a period where people were perhaps against it [hybrid engines] in the supercar market segment.”
The McLaren sales boss said the Artura – currently the brand’s only hybrid model in Australia – was a key factor in convincing local customers to switch from pure petrol engines to hybrid powertrains.
“As people have been driving the Artura and understand what it actually gives you particularly once you get behind the wheel and felt the physical benefit of it, there is definite acceptance happening,” Hotchin told Drive.
Petrol-electric engines have been a part of McLaren’s development strategy since 2013, when it launched its first hybrid model in the P1, the immediate successor to the iconic McLaren F1 supercar.
Since then, various petrol-electric powertrains have been used in the aforementioned Artura, the Speedtail and more recently, the W1 – the newest model from the brand’s ‘1’ hypercar line.
But it’s worth noting McLaren uses the electric motor as a performance-enhancing tool rather than aiming for the longest driving range in electric-only mode.
According to McLaren’s W1 project manager Heather Fitch, the car’s hybrid powertrain – which pairs a new V8 engine to a “motorsport-derived” radial flux electric motor – was crucial in balancing customer requests both on track and on the road.
“For us, this [hybrid powertrain] was the right combination of elements to bring together a car that you can take to the track, and it will all be everything there.
“But equally, you can drive it home again comfortably by changing some of the settings, changing the modes you can drive, and you’ve got a performance envelope which is bigger than we’ve had before, where the car is fantastic on both road and track, Fitch told Drive.
For context, the $AU3.9 million McLaren W1 is being limited to 399 production examples, with Australian deliveries due to commence in the second half of 2026, pending any delays.
Ethan Cardinal graduated with a Journalism degree in 2020 from La Trobe University and has been working in the fashion industry as a freelance writer prior to joining Drive in 2023. Ethan greatly enjoys investigating and reporting on the cross sections between automotive, lifestyle and culture. Ethan relishes the opportunity to explore how deep cars are intertwined within different industries and how they could affect both casual readers and car enthusiasts.
