The McLaren Artura isn’t quite McLaren Automotive’s first electrified supercar, but it is its most important. Building on what the company learned by making the hybrid-powered P1 hypercar first, and then the 250mph Speedtail, the Artura is intended to become the bedrock of the British supercar-maker’s business for the better part of the next decade, as the world gets more used to the idea of electrically-powered models in all corners of the luxury car market, and global emissions laws clamp down ever more tightly on their entirely fossil-fuelled predecessors.
Although Woking says it isn’t a direct replacement for the old 570- and 600- Sport Series cars, it’s certainly a natural successor to them, being a close match for a 570S in terms of size, but significantly outstripping it for power to weight ratio. That gain is thanks to an all-new, wide-angle turbo V6 combustion engine and a super-compact axial flux electric drive motor, which between them produce up to 671bhp – but which can also drive the car for up to 19 miles on electric power alone, thanks to a 7.4kWh onboard drive battery.
The Artura is new from the ground up, as well as technologically ambitious. It hasn’t been an easy car to deliver for McLaren, and the impact of that was certainly felt at the car’s press launch in Spain, as you’ll hear in our video. But, in spite of its technical complexity, this is an electrified supercar of remarkable purity as a driver’s car, with top-level performance and response and plenty of usability. Autocar Road Test Editor Matt Saunders is your guide to it.
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