On the road with the Artura - Mclaren's new hybrid supercar

The new Artura is a landmark product for McLaren. While the British supercar manufacturer has been working with hybrid powertrains on its limited-edition Ultimate Series cars for over a decade, this is the first time that the technology has been applied to a regular production model.

The Artura also sees the debut of a new twin turbocharged V6 engine, designed in-house by McLaren and produced by Ricardo in Shoreham. Meanwhile, the carbon fibre monocoque is the first complete tub to be manufactured at the new McLaren Composites Technology Centre in Sheffield.

McLaren’s longstanding obsession with composite materials plays a particularly important role in this car. With 7.6kWh of usable capacity, the Artura’s lithium-ion battery is not an especially large one; neither is its 94bhp axial-flux electric motor, which is only slightly bigger than a brake disc and weighs just 15.4kg.

But put the two together with all the accompanying hardware and it’s still a big chunk of additional mass to accommodate on a car that prioritises light weight and driving purity above all else. With that in mind, McLaren has sought to shed every excess gram across the car.