McLaren will build a new chassis manufacturing and development facility in Sheffield this year. A £50million investment will create more than 200 jobs in the city, with the new centre opening fully in 2020.
The facility, called the McLaren Composites Technology Centre, is due to be formally announced tomorrow. It will be the first purpose-built facility the British supercar maker has committed to outside of its existing Woking base.
The centre will design and produce McLaren's next generation of advance carbon fibre Monocell and Monocage chassis' - set to underpin a new range of Super Series and Ultimate Series models.
A £50m partnership between McLaren, Sheffield City Council and the nearby University of Sheffield's Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) will see construction begin early this year, with full production chassis parts set to roll out before 2020.
The facility is said to save around £10m for McLaren compared to the outsourced processes it uses today. CEO Mike Flewitt commented that the link with the AMRC allows "access to some of the world's finest composites and materials research capabilities".
"The now-iconic McLaren F1 was the world’s first road car to be built with a carbon fibre chassis and every car built more recently by McLaren Automotive has the same. Creating a facility where we can manufacture our own carbon fibre chassis structures is therefore a logical next step".
Advanced automated manufacturing techniques will be used in the four-acre site, although 150 production staff and 50 manufacturing staff will still be hired. The company is set to separately reveal the successor to its 650S supercar at Geneva this year.
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