{"id":13438,"date":"2021-11-14T08:25:54","date_gmt":"2021-11-14T13:25:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/autosector.com\/auto\/?p=13438"},"modified":"2021-11-14T08:25:54","modified_gmt":"2021-11-14T13:25:54","slug":"bmw-reportedly-interested-buying-mclaren-road-car-division","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=13438","title":{"rendered":"BMW reportedly interested in buying McLaren road car division"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Few automotive collaborations have been as special as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bmwblog.com\/2021\/10\/03\/one-of-a-kind-mclaren-f1-shines-at-villa-deste\/\">BMW V12-powered McLaren F1<\/a> of the 1990s, the iconic supercar that still holds the title for the fastest naturally aspirated production car. Back in 2015, some rumors emerged about the companies looking to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bmwblog.com\/2015\/09\/23\/bmw-says-no-mclaren-bmw-supercar\/\">ink a deal for a jointly developed supercar<\/a> project with a mid-engine V8 layout, but it never happened.<\/p>\n<p>Fast forward to November 2021, a reliable source claims BMW and McLaren could collaborate once again, but in a more permanent manner. German publication <em>Automobilwoche<\/em>, an extension of <em>Automotive News<\/em>, alleges the Bavarian marque is interested in buying McLaren Automotive, the road car division of the Woking-based brand.<\/p>\n<p>Sources familiar with the matter have told <em>Automobilwoche\u00a0<\/em>that high-ranked BMW officials will soon negotiate with the Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company\u00a0(\u201cMumtalakat\u201d), which represents the sovereign wealth fund\u00a0of the\u00a0government\u00a0of the\u00a0Kingdom of Bahrain. It effectively controls McLaren by owning 62.55% of McLaren Group Limited.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_402976\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-402976\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><noscript><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-402976\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.bmwblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/mclaren_f1_199302-830x527.jpg\" alt=\"mclaren f1 199302 830x527\" width=\"830\" height=\"527\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.bmwblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/mclaren_f1_199302-830x527.jpg 830w, https:\/\/cdn.bmwblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/mclaren_f1_199302-1613x1024.jpg 1613w, https:\/\/cdn.bmwblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/mclaren_f1_199302-768x488.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.bmwblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/mclaren_f1_199302-1536x975.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.bmwblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/mclaren_f1_199302.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 830px) 100vw, 830px\" title=\"image of mclaren f1 199302 830x527\"\/><\/noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload size-medium wp-image-402976\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=%22http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg%22%20viewBox=%220%200%20830%20527%22%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.bmwblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/mclaren_f1_199302-830x527.jpg\" alt=\"mclaren f1 199302 830x527\" width=\"830\" height=\"527\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.bmwblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/mclaren_f1_199302-830x527.jpg 830w, https:\/\/cdn.bmwblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/mclaren_f1_199302-1613x1024.jpg 1613w, https:\/\/cdn.bmwblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/mclaren_f1_199302-768x488.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.bmwblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/mclaren_f1_199302-1536x975.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.bmwblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/mclaren_f1_199302.jpg 1920w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 830px) 100vw, 830px\" title=\"image of mclaren f1 199302 830x527\"\/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-402976\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">McLaren F1 \u2013 Photos by McLaren Media<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>According to the same report, Volkswagen Group\u2019s luxury division Audi \u2013 which this year took control of Bentley \u2013 is interested in acquiring McLaren\u2019s Formula 1 unit. Both BMW and Audi have been contacted by the media, but have yet to respond. It\u2019s a Sunday after all, but hopefully, spokespersons working at the two German luxury brands will answer next week to inquires with something other than the usual \u201cno comment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It is worth mentioning McLaren has been having financial issues for a while, and it goes without saying 2020 was a particularly bad year due to the coronavirus pandemic. Sales collapsed from the 4,662 cars delivered in 2019 to only 1,659 units, causing a massive loss of more than $900 million for 2020. It received a short-term loan from the National Bank of Bahrain, but that wasn\u2019t enough to get back on track.<\/p>\n<p>It had to not only sell a stake in the F1 racing team, but even sell and lease back its headquarters and manufacturing plant located in southern England. There\u2019s a lot riding on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bmwblog.com\/2021\/02\/17\/mclaren-artura-we-wish-bmw-i8-was\/\">new Artura<\/a> plug-in hybrid supercar to help improve the finances of McLaren, which is currently without a boss as Mike Flewitt announced at the end of October that he would leave after joining the company in 2012 and being appointed CEO a year later.<\/p>\n<p>[Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.autonews.com\/automakers-suppliers\/bmw-audi-looking-buying-mclaren-report-says\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Automobilwoche<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Few automotive collaborations have been as special as the BMW V12-powered McLaren F1 of the 1990s, the iconic supercar that still holds the title for the fastest naturally aspirated production car. Back in 2015, some rumors emerged about the companies looking to ink a deal for a jointly developed supercar project with a mid-engine V8 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":8313,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}