McLaren Is Officially Making An SUV 8 Years After It Said It Wouldn't, And You Know What? Good For Them

If there's one thing I've learned over the admittedly short 30-or-so years I've been on this earth, it's that there's no greater guarantee that something will indeed eventually happen other than a bunch of important people being adamant that said thing will never, ever happen purely based on vibes. Remember back in 2018 when McLaren's CEO said the brand would never come out with an SUV and won, like, all of the car enthusiast internet brownie points for 24 hours? Well, now McLaren is officially doing an SUV.

In a Wednesday press release detailing a $670 million investment expanding its operations in the U.K., McLaren Automotive has formally announced its plans to come out with a "performance SUV." To be fair, the company has softened its SUV stance over the past eight years, seeming to adopt a very both sides–coded approach that acknowledges the financial value of building one without actually committing. Last year we heard the company was actually planning an SUV, and now it looks like the need to pay bills has finally won out.

Look, if this happened six years ago, I feel like I would've been mildly outraged, but right now, I can't bring myself to genuinely feel that way — perhaps the emotional exhaustion of merely existing and being media literate in 2026 has worn out my outrage-ometer. Or, more likely, we're simply past the point of being mad at exotic car companies for building family cars to try to be profitable.

Porsche arguably kicked it all off with the Cayenne, Lamborghini prints money with the Urus, Aston Martin has the DBX, and we're about three years into the Ferrari Purosangue. Those cars came out, some purists got mad over "brand dilution," but then life moved on. Those companies didn't implode, the "real" supercar products didn't get worse (arguably, the opposite happened), and seeing a V12 Revuelto in the wild isn't any less exciting just because the Urus also exists.

And, at any rate, this SUV news comes alongside another nugget that the "brand purists" will very much like: The same cash injection that'll spawn a McLaren crossover will also introduce new facilities that'll apparently allow the company to design and build engines in-house in its home country for the very first time. In case you didn't know, that twin-turbo V8 McLaren has used in most of its modern road offerings has roots in a Nissan Le Mans engine from the '80s.

I don't know about you, but if my favorite steakhouse said that it had to put salad on the menu so it can afford better beef, I wouldn't get mad. You don't have to order the salad. It'll be fine.