Monday, Jan 16, 2017

Dubai

The McLaren surge of 2016 is not showing any signs of slowing even a bit this year. The British sportscar maker has just had the opening of the world’s largest showroom dedicated to it open in Dubai (on Shaikh Zayed and operated by Al Habtoor Motors). The twin-storey, 600-square-metre structure already makes a strong statement with its giant LED display facing the highway.

And it will double down with new partners to handle operations in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. New showrooms and after-market facilities are to open in both market, which would set up McLaren for a strong second-half. And early in the second quarter, there will be a debut in Lebanon, opening up another market where its high-value models are likely to hit the high notes.

It’s certainly been doing so in the UAE, which has been the dominant regional contributor to its 2016 tally of more than 200 units from a 50 per cent plus year-on-year growth. “The market conditions continue to be difficult… but enough is happening at the local retail level to ensure momentum is maintained this year,” said Andreas Bareis, Managing Director for the MENA territory. “We will get near full-year benefits when the new partner showrooms open in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.”

And the big bang for McLaren Automotive in 2017 will come from the next version of its Super Series line-up, which will be unveiled at March’s Geneva car show. It represents the first-ever “replacement of a product family” and the first of 15 new cars/derivatives that would bulk up McLaren’s Track22 Business Plan up to 2022. (For the uninitiated, the McLaren range is split between Sports Series, Super Series and Hyper Series. The Sports models come in at 20-30 per cent lower in prices, and serves as a sort of entry into the McLaren family.) “Pre-orders from this region are quite high - and these were done without anyone actually seeing the model,” said Bareis. (That’s getting to be a fairly commonplace with just about any of McLaren’s model launches in recent years.) “Deliveries should start by Q3/Q4 this year - there should be enough of that happening for us to be confident of the final 2017 Mideast numbers,” the MD added.

North American demand propelled McLaren’s global tally for 2016, when it sold 3,286 cars from 2015’s 1,654. And the numbers came in above expectations, according to the company’s own admission, which was planning for about 3,000 units. (The North Americas helped with 1,139 cars from a 106 per cent annual gain, and Europe following close with 996 units, up 153 per cent.) But with McLaren, there are some numbers that gain in value when served up in limited quantity. It is working on a three-seater model — as of now only revealed by a darkened silhouette - that would trace its identity to the famed F1, launched in 1992 and the fastest naturally-aspirated production car ever. The new iteration — codenamed BP23 or simply known as the Hyper-GT — is due to show up next year and with deliveries commencing in 2019.

And only in a strictly limited number — about 100 or so. “With the earlier F1 models fetching close to $15 million (Dh55 million), there are always people asking us to come up with those kind of projects,” said Bareis. “We did something similar with the 903-hp P1, of which 375 were built and with a price tag of 866,000 pounds. We delivered 15-20 per cent of these to Mideast customers.”

By Manoj Nair Associate Editor

Gulf News 2017. All rights reserved.