McLaren is making a major UK drive, pledging 450m in its Woking, Surrey technology centre and creating some 1,000 jobs. It has given a big vote of confidence in British car production at a time when a number of giants are shrinking their workforces and feeling the heat of changing markets.
It fund the research and manufacturing at McLaren advanced technology Center of the McLaren’s high- technology Center located at the Woking campus where they manufacture its vehicles.
Currently McLaren employs above 2,500 employees and this investment could so lead to a significant expansion of its UK workforce. The new jobs will include direct, indirect and agency vacancies.
At the same time the investment is being made, McLaren are expanding their automotive business more widely. Last year McLaren joined forces with British electric car start-up Forseven Holdings to form a new company designed to bring McLaren’s high-performance automotive experience together with further technologies and electrification.
Since its acquisition by the investment company’s CYVN Holdings, McLaren Automotive is held under an Abu Dhabi-based investment company that bought the business from the Bahrain-based Mumtalakat.
CYVN has agreed to a five-year investment of about $2 billion to improve and develop the struggling supercar firm. The 450million investment in Woking is so more than just for a new factory. It is part of a far larger strategy to improve McLaren’s manufacturing and engineering ability and to ready the company for the next generation of vehicles.
Founded for decades ago, McLaren Automotive is a manufacturer of lightweight, high-performance sports and supercars and it is now anticipated that the company will expand its product strategy to provide the company with new growth strategies.
It is said that McLaren may be contemplating beyond the usual 2-seater performance cars with a new range of luxury cars and even an SUV on the card.
This means the UK brand will be dealing with far more major players in the premium world.
The acquisition of Forseven is key at this stage as the British EV start-up offers some of the additional experience that McLaren could be lacking to accelerate the EV production process. Real unification of those qualities with McLaren lightweight bodies and performance engineering should allow the company to develop more innovative products.
Technology and Jobs are at the Heart of the Strategy. The Woking technology centre should be key to McLaren’s product development in the future.
Investment into manufacturing and research facilities will enable the company to develop new technologies within the company and keep a tight link between engineering and production.
This is followed further down the page by evidence that the Woking campus is being set up for increased technical activity, this time in the form of plans for an extension to the McLaren Technology Centre that was accepted over the summer allowing for a test rig and access infrastructure.