Different people in the auto business have very different ideas about whether or not electric vehicles can be used for high-performance tasks. As for when authentic electric supercars that live up to the goals of their gasoline-burning predecessors will come out, McLaren’s CEO thinks it will be a while. Michael Leiters, CEO of McLaren Automotive, says that the current EV technology needs to be improved for making high-quality supercars. Leiters told Bloomberg not long ago, “Weight is significant, but you also need to have the right range.” “I don’t expect this technology to be ready for real supercars before the end of the decade,” he states. Leiters’ main point is that a supercar needs to be strong and light. Although several high-powered electric vehicles are on the market now, McLaren doesn’t think their curb weights are acceptable for a supercar. He said, “We don’t want to build an electric car that weighs two tons and has 2,000 horsepower.” The company would rather wait until it can make a version that weighs around 3,300 pounds. Leiters’s words might have been a subtle reference to the Rimac Nevera. The electric car has a good battery range of 300 miles and a powerful 1,888 horsepower from four motors. But there is a trade-off between weight and all of this. The Nevera is hefty—5,100 pounds. In the past few years, many of McLaren’s competitors’ curb weights have slowly increased. However, McLaren has always put weight first. Other cars, like the McLaren P1 and 720S, weighed less than 3,200 pounds, while the McLaren Senna Special Edition weighed only 2,886 pounds. McLaren will likely make its electric car more modern, with lighter batteries available. For now, though, the British company would rather keep doing what it does best: turning oil into speed the old-fashioned way.
