McLaren Artura Spider Hybrid Electric Supercar Cuts Roof And Adds Power
McLaren has updated the Artura for model year 2025, and this time around, the company is bringing a hybrid convertible into the mix alongside a vanilla coupe. The British automaker claims that the Artura Spider is its "first-ever High-Performance Hybrid convertible," and given the exhaustive list of upgrades on the table, it could very well be the best hybrid the company has ever produced.
Thankfully, the improvements gracing the convertible will also make their way to the coupe, so there's little to worry on that front for folks willing to fork a quarter-million dollars for a new car. Armed with five lithium battery packs worth 7.4kWh, alongside a M630 V6 engine, the latest McLaren ride can muster 690 brake horsepower in tandem with its eight-speed transmission system.
The company is touting an electric-only range of 21 miles, and will honor a replacement warranty for six operational years or 45,000 miles on the odometer, whichever milestone is achieved first.
Of course, it's a McLaren, so the car has to be naturally fast. For the Artura Spider, the company is claiming that the new convertible can go from 0-60 miles per hour in three seconds. The Spider peaks at 205 miles per hour as its top speed, while barely missing the vaunted quarter-mile achievement by crossing the barrier in 10.8 seconds. The Artura Spider, alongside its Coupe sibling, is now open for orders in the U.S., and elsewhere, assuming the aforementioned numbers have already got your heart racing.
A showcase of supercar finesse
Now, the Artura Spider's hardtop retractable roof is not merely an aesthetic vanity. Instead, it's also a showcase of McLaren's willingness to experiment with cutting-edge tech. In this case, the roof is made out of electrochromic glass, which can adjust its transparency with the push of a button, and can go from see-through to 99% light-blockage to change the entire cabin's mood. The carmaker also notes that the roof only takes 11 seconds to retract fully.
McLaren says it has also refined the valve exhaust assembly, adding a tuned resonator and giving an upward conical treatment to the tailpipes in order to tweak the engine note. Compared to the McLaren P1 — which arrived in 2013 as the company's first hybrid speed demon — the Artura Spider's electric engine serves a 33% higher power density. On the topic of density though, this one is also claimed to be the "lightest convertible supercar in its class."
McLaren is also touting virtues such as improved stability, more precise braking controls, refined handling, lower understeer, and better responsiveness, among others. The company has set a price tag of $273,800 for the Artura Spider's vanilla trim, but there are three more interior specification variants — Performance, TechLux, and Vision — available at a premium of $9,400 each. McLaren has also dramatically expanded the color palette for its latest hybrid, and in an act of unprecedented generosity for the luxury car segment, the once-premium badging perk is now a standard no-cost facility.