McLaren Group Holdings formed from McLaren-Forseven merger; to go beyond mid-engined cars

McLaren Automotive will merge with British start-up firm Forseven following the acquisition of the British supercar maker by Abu Dhabi government-owned investment firm CYVN Holdings. This merger results in McLaren Group Holdings, and CYVN Holdings will also take a non-controlling stake in McLaren Racing.

Forseven CEO Nick Collins will assume the role of CEO at McLaren Group Holdings, and CYVN chairman Jassem Mohamed Bu Ataba Al Zaabi will be chairman of the newly-formed company. Collins was previously a senior engineer at Ford and then at Jaguar Land Rover, where he oversaw the development of models such as the Defender and Range Rover.

CYVN Holdings is the largest shareholder in EV maker Nio, and in July 2023 it also acquired a controlling stake in Gordon Murray Technologies – separate from the car-making business, Gordon Murray Automotive. Road & Track reported it has been told that there is no direct relationship between Gordon Murray Automotive and the newly-formed McLaren Group Holdings.

Forseven was founded in 2022 and is owned by CYVN Holdings, which took control of McLaren in late 2024, following an earlier announcement of a partnership between Mumtalakat and CYVN Holdings. The Forseven brand was “just a holding name” and it is not intended to be a customer-facing brand, and will cease to exist, Collins told Autocar.

Meanwhile, a turnaround plan over the next six months for McLaren Automotive will commence immediately, the supercar brand stated. Collins told Autocar that McLaren is planning for a range of models at “higher price points” within the luxury segment.

The design team tasked with the upcoming McLaren models is comprised of around 50 people, with virtual reality being utilised alongside physical models to enable design work to be carried out with a team based in Australia in addition to its UK operations, the British publication wrote.

While the Forseven website suggests the company is focused primarily on electric vehicles, the upcoming models for new McLaren models will include high-performance ICE units, Autocar wrote. “The future of propulsion is multi-propulsion. The more luxurious the vehicle gets, the better electric is for it because it’s quieter, more refined, so it will play a role,” said Collins.

“We genuinely think you can make a brilliant electric car in certain segments, but through the way the world is transiting at different paces in different parts of the world, we will have different propulsion technologies to allow us to grow in the right way,” he continued.

With the merger, McLaren facilities in Woking as well as its composites plant in Yorkshire will be retained, and the companies will be integrated rather than operate separately, according to Autocar. Forseven has three locations in the UK, plus facilities in Shalford where Gordon Murray Technologies currently operates.

The newly-formed McLaren Group Holdings “would probably look to rationalise our footprint over time”, however all current facilities will be retained for now, Collins said. Where future Forseven-built McLaren models will be built has not been disclosed, though Collins has ruled out China.

While the objective is for McLaren Group Holdings to grow, Collins said it is “too early to say” if there will be job cuts due to overlaps following the merger.

“What I’ve said to everybody [at McLaren] is that we’ve got to improve short-term performance – that’s clear. And, frankly, at Forseven we can improve things on efficiency and how we’re allocating resources for what we’re getting done as well,” Collins told Autocar.

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