mwillems wrote: ↑19 Jun 2020, 14:29
FW17 wrote: ↑19 Jun 2020, 12:48
mwillems wrote: ↑19 Jun 2020, 11:56
They had record sales last year, how is that the source of their problems? Their problem was a fair amount of debt and little leeway for the bottom to drop out of the market for half a year. Mclarens issue is not viability or products it is cashflow. That is it, all they need is money, they just don't want to sell the business to get it!
People will be buying petrol Mclarens until combustion cars are banned, same as other supercars. They will likely contrinue to produce highly sought after petrol track cars long after the road ban, for those that want the experience and want a peice of heritage to invest in.
In terms of powetrain, Mclaren can license an electric powertrain from another company later down the line and it will be relatively easy for them to do some development and create a fully electric car. Or Ricardo will recognise their time is numbered and already be working on electric engines.
The Tesla Model S P100D will run a 720s very closely, be much more efficient, practical etc The 720S is £80k more than the P100D..... and yet Mclarens sold in record numbers last year. Bet Teslas Model S waiting list is shorter than Mclarens too! EV has nothing to do with Mclarens issues and will have nothing to do with wether people want to invest.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHgh4_1ksGQ
You are mistaken, Mclaren was a new company that was raising money. It was easier as it was a leaner company with less debt and product portfolio in comparison to existing super car manufacturers and regular manufacturers.
Debt was taken to develop new product lines, and these product lines are a dead end sooner or later. At this moment they do not have an electric portfolio, neither will they be able to develop one as they do not have funds. finding investments is going to be difficult unless it is a govt. bailout.
Mistaken about what in particular?
Do you mean the powertrain? No they don't have an electric portfolio, my point was I doubt it will affect them massively for a few years, people aren't buying Mclarens for electric, they are pure race cars. The Tesla S has been around long enough to compete with supercars and Mclarens business was booming anyway. I understand the markets will eventually move solely to EV, but I see no evidence that Mclaren have been impacted by that in any way up to now and I don't think they will in the near future.
If it is the investment, do me a favour and clarify where I am wrong, as I am perhaps being a bit stupid. You simply think I am wrong that they will get investment/buyers?
McLaren and Tesla both make cars and are relative young companies. The comparison stops there. Where Tesla is competing with Audi, BMW, VW, Lexus, etc etc, McLaren is in the Lambo and Ferrari realm.
Compared to Lambo and Ferrari, a McLaren has a couple of problems. Their whole portfolio is build around one big investment: the Nissan V8 and the carbon tub. Somewhere soon they need a big investment to renew those two pillars. Lamborghini and Ferrari are of course part of bigger automotive companies (VW and FCA), not only makes this development cheaper, the use of developed parts shared with more cars (and make the development cost per unit lower) but also have a secondary use as the brands halo products. FCO or VW AG wouldn’t worry to much if Ferrari or Lamborghini don’t make so much money a few years, while a company like McLaren is in trouble right away.
So. For instance, the twin turbo V8, how long before their competition comes with their next gen and does McLaren have enough resources to counter this? At the moment a TT V8 of around 3.8 -4.0 is the gold standard, but for how long?