McLaren Automotive Has Sold a Record 5,000 Cars in the U.S.
McLaren's investment into expanding its supercar lineup is paying off with greater sales.
By James Gilboy May 2, 2018
Formula 1-linked supercar manufacturer McLaren Automotive cut the 5,000 sales ribbon in the United States, it announced Tuesday.
Car number 5,000 in the states was a 570S Spider, painted Silica White and registered to a customer in California. The 570S Spider, despite being an entry into McLaren's "sports series," is a supercar without a doubt, its 562 horsepower guaranteeing its entry into the club.
McLaren returned to road car manufacture in 2011 with its MP4-12C, 13 years after its first road car (the incomparable F1) ceased production. Two years later, it would launch the limited-run P1 hypercar, and in the following year, the 12C evolved into the 650S, defining the scheme by which McLaren's future mass-production road cars would be named. A year later, the 650S was undercut in the McLaren lineup by the 570S, while the 650S received a special edition variant, the 675LT. In 2017, the 720S arrived, and two new hypercars—the Senna and as of yet unnamed BP23 (and corresponding "art" piece)—were announced.
The expanded lineup and vigorous investment into its distribution network stateside (dealers opened in Denver and Beverly Hills in 2017) gave McLaren outlets through which to sell more cars to Americans than ever before. It paid off with a record 3,340 global sales in 2017, with the United States accounting for 1,234 according to McLaren.
In fact, McLaren's sales in December of 2017, likely buoyed by its new dealerships, surpassed those of Lamborghini, allowing the Brits to outsell the Italians by 15 cars over the period of the year in 2017. This trend continued over the opening months of 2018, McLaren outselling Lamborghini 79 cars to 60 in January, and 109 to 72 in February.
The Drive reached out to McLaren Automotive to see if it maintained its momentum through March and April. McLaren's regional vice president of communications, Roger Ormisher, declined to share internal counts, but directed attention to figures published by Automotive News, which gives McLaren an 85 point lead over Lamborghini's 360 total sales through April.
"If we have overtaken them, that's a nice achievement in just 6 years of selling in this market," said Ormisher in a discussion with The Drive. "But remember, they have Urus on the way, so it may be short-lived, as we have absolutely no plans for an SUV!"
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