The beleaguered British automaker will enjoy a huge financial windfall…
You likely have heard that storied British automaker McLaren has been in serious financial trouble lately. After all, the company has sold some of its private car collection to fund normal operations. But things seem to be turning a corner now, because according to a Sky News report, McLaren has found a way to raise some serious cash that doesn’t involve selling any more priceless heirlooms.
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The report claims a group of existing McLaren shareholders gave the company £70 million as the first step in a bigger capital-raising scheme. Ultimately, the automaker might receive up to £500 million in much-needed funding.
Why does McLaren need so much cash? The answer is electrification. See, the thing a lot of people don’t realize is the smaller automakers are struggling to make electric vehicles because they’re expensive to develop and produce. If you think consolidation in the auto industry has made all cars look the same for a sea of blandness, electrification will make that problem far worse.
This issue made it hard for McLaren to fulfill the new Artura, a hybrid supercar, requiring the company to sell off more of its assets. Even then, deliveries of the new model have been delayed.
At least McLaren has some wealthy backers, unlike smaller mainstream automakers like Mazda. After all, the British automaker counts among its ranks of investors the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
It’s not clear just how much cash McLaren will be able to drum up or precisely how it will be done. The report does mention a “recapitalization” effort, but since nothing is official the details are murky. It’s also possible the numbers cited are off, but hopefully the overall message that McLaren is fighting ahead is true. After all, we need more independent, creative automakers instead of more of the same.
Source: Sky News
Images via McLaren
