Gordon Murray Automotive plotting lightweight electric SUV for 2023 launch

Legendary automotive designer Gordon Murray – best known as the brains behind the McLaren F1 supercar of the 1990s – is currently working on a small lightweight electric SUV, the Briton has revealed to Forbes.

“The targets we’ve set ourselves for this vehicle are pretty strong ... We’re looking at a smallish B-segment car, four meters long, four- or five-seater SUV, and we’re looking at being one-third lighter than the competition ... [with] C-segment space in a B-segment vehicle,” Murray told the outlet.

“We’ve set ourselves some pretty tough targets but we think we can get pretty close.”

The vehicle is reportedly part of a wider £300 million (AU$550 million) company-wide investment, which will see the creation of a new division called Gordon Murray Electronics (GME) tasked with building “the world’s lightest, most efficient and advanced EV [platforms].”

Alongside the aforementioned SUV, the newly-developed skateboard chassis will also reportedly underpin a small electric delivery van designed to “attract customers and partners wishing to mass-produce.”

The company is currently developing a $4 million "spiritual successor" to the McLaren F1 known as the T.50, pitched as the last analogue supercar before the electric era and this is slated for production in 2022.

CarAdvice has reached out to Gordon Murray Automotive for more information in the upcoming platform, and its potential applications. This story will be updated when more information becomes available.