A McLaren SUV? Apparently So

I recall writing some time back that I thought that McLaren was very brave to resist the temptation to have an SUV. Every other luxury sports car manufacturer had yielded and gone to the dark side. The competition decided that it was a route they had to take. It's more profitable and reduces the financial impact if the sports car market is soft. 

McLaren has surrendered and common sense has prevailed. Every manufacturer needs an SUV. Its code name is P47 but if you want to see some images, a bit early for that. There are some images circulating but as they are not from McLaren, I decided not to post guesswork. 

This isn't simply about designing a different sort of the car, big as that is in itself. It also needs to be built somewhere, driven by something new and the increased volume also means expansions in other areas of the operation. So what are some of the details?

Plant Expansion: A second vehicle manufacturing plant, possibly in Sheffield. There will be expansions in facilities in Woking and Bicester. 

In House Manufacturing: McLaren is shifting away from external suppliers, in that it plans to design and build two new engines and transmissions. 

Timing: It is expected to be ready around 2028, all going well.

A Full EV Variant: This won't be happening as demand isn't sufficient to justify an EV.  

Competition: The Lamborghini Urus and Aston Martin DBX are obvious ones. 

McLaren is doing this from scratch, without collaborating with anyone else.  It's a shame that there isn't a way to share with others and save on costs. That said, I can see why they want to do the car to match the McLaren ethos.

Lotus Technology Deliveries : 2025/26 (H1)

Lotus reported that it's half year sales result was up 39%. Going on their unaudited 2025 figure as as seen to the right, it's +35%. 

According to the company, growth was driven by the launch of the Eletre X, a new PHEV model. The sports car division meanwhile maintained a stable volume. 

Data source: Lotus Technology.

Photos: Lotus. (Eletre, Emira & Eletre X).

Regionally, China experienced strong growth in total deliveries with an increase of 60% YOY, outpacing the premium passenger automotive segment amid an increasingly competitive landscape. 

Lifestyle vehicle deliveries (Cars/SUV) increased to 77% of the total sales. It was 70% in 2025. Sports cars are, as mentioned already, holding up well, but not growing to the same degree. 

Eletre X, a new PHEV model. It helped Lotus enter the range extended PHEV segment. Eletre X has been delivered in China and six other markets. Deliveries in mainland Europe are expected to commence in the fourth quarter of 2026, followed by the UK in mid 2027. 

Aston Martin Global Deliveries : 2025-26 (H1)

Deliveries were down 1% in Q1 and then dramatically up 43% in Q2. That's an exceptional result in the present climate. Last year, wholesale deliveries fell 10%, but things are turning around in 2026. 

I believe reducing inventory was the reason for last year's reduction, with production now more in line with orders received. The 2026 increase is across the board. 

With H1 deliveries up 21%, gross profit is up 68%. With the industry facing so many negative issues, no mean feat. 

Data source: Aston Martin.

Photos: DB12, Vantage, DBX & Valhalla.

Regions: The Americas is where most cars are delivered. 36% of the total went there in H1, for a 29% increase. Europe, Middle East and Africa combine to account for 30%. The UK registered 18%, which historically quite a low figure. The Asia and Pacific region now make up just 16%, probably due to China. 

Models: The GT and sports car range make up 67% of the total. The DBX SUV 23% and Specials 10%. All but one or two of those latter deliveries are for the Valhalla. Current orders for this car stretch to the end of Q4 2026.

Volvo / Polestar Deliveries : 2025-26 (H1)

Volvo had a disappointing 2025 after several years of solid increases. In trying times, 2026 is down 8%, -11% in Q1 and  -6% in Q2. At the half way point, deliveries are -54% of the total 2025. 

Most models are feeling the pinch with new models (XC70 and ES90) not of sufficiently large in volume to make up the shortfall. 

Data source: Volvo (ES90) & Polestar (2).

The Rest about the same as 2025. The pain is coming from the Americas (-12%) and China (-27%). Volvo is seemingly not chasing volume but realigning its sales.

I'd love to know the logic behind reducing the breakdown of regional deliveries to just two regions and everything else lumped into a nebulous 'Rest' category. Over 60% of the total is therefore unspecified. Duh!

As for Polestar, after a poor 2024, 2025 was up 34%. Now in 2026, up to H1, it is at break even point with last year. This is due to a drop in Q2 of 4%, offsettling the Q1 increase of 7%. More detail isn't available from Polestar. 

The current model range of the Polestar 2 (saloon car), Polestar 3 (SUV), and Polestar 4 (SUV coupe). The Polestar 5 GT is the next cab off the rank, due about now (mid 2026). 

Lotus Sales : 2023-25

Lotus Cars has always been a problem child. The issue hasn't been the product. Far from it. It's been about profitability or the lack of. 

Current owners are Geely (51%) and Etika Automotive (49%), a Chinese-Malaysian collaboration.

The current range consists of the Eletre and Emeya electric SUV/GT,  made in China. The petrol powered Emira and limited volume electric Evija sports cars, made in the UK. 

To the right we can see the last three years of sales. Things took off in 2023 and continued through 2024. By 2025, orders had been met and a return to relative normality.

A hybrid version of the Eletre SUV is planned for 2026 and that should noticeably lift sales. A hybrid Emira and a smaller SUV are planned for 2027. 

Now looking at models, or more precisely. the two segments they reside in. The Car/SUV grouping is up from 57% to 70%. Both are down in volume and combined that is -46%. 

The sports car side of the business basically revolves around one model and therefore is going to boom with a new model and then fall away to something more reflective of true demand.

As for regions, China has emerged as the largest for Lotus sales, with 45% of the total. It's also the only region that increased. It would be safe to assume that the Car/SUV models would be the main cars sold there, while the sports cars are the more popular elsewhere. 

Data and photo source: Lotus Cars. 

Photos (from the top). Eletre, Emira, Evija and Emeya.

Aston Martin Global Deliveries : 2022-25

Aston Martin is a marque of distinction, not hurt by its connection with the most famous of secret agents. It has also been a company that historically found profitability to be elusive.

A car company that low volume and labour intensive needs to charge for the exclusivity and quality. There are only so many people buying such cars and there are several companies vying for the same customers.

To the right are quarterly deliveries for the past four years. They have been very consistent with Q4 always giving an upward spike in volume. 

2025 was no exception although the last two quarters were down the most. Aston Martin is focused on a sound business model rather than chasing volume to look good. That's the challenge. 

Regions: All the regions are down with Asia/Pacific being the largest amount. China would be the main reason, but relying on that market is increasingly challenging for many reasons. Aston Martin has to deal with tariffs and consumption taxes that exist around the world and these are getting worse, not better. 

Every country claims to be a champion of fair trade but for many countries it is nothing more than hypocritical posturing. Sometimes trade has to be regulated to balance the books but at other times manipulated to selfishly generate large trade surpluses. This is something that hurts companies like Aston Martin.  

 

Models: All models had similar falls in volume. 152 units of the Valhalla were delivered in Q4 of 2025 and hopefully a further 500 in 2026. The Vanquish Volante, DBX S, Vantage S and Volante 60th Anniversary models are all now available. The DB12 S is planned for the first half of 2026. Plenty of things happening then. 

Polestar Deliveries : 2025

Polestar started in 1996 as a racing team for Volvo cars. In 2025. Volvo acquired it in 2025 and two years later it was decided to make it an perfermance electric car brand.

Deliveries commenced in the latter part of 2022 and in 2023, nearly 53,000 found homes. 2024 deliveries dropped 15% but in 2025 they rebounded by 34%.

The 60,000 units sold in 2025 is a record for the marque with each quarter up on the corresponding one a year earlier. The company doesn't break deliveries down by model.

Photo source: Polestar. 

Historical deliveries can be found by clicking here.

Volvo Global Sales : 2024-25

Volvo deliveries were down 7% in 2025. 710,000 units or 53,000 fewer than 2024. In these tring times for the car industry no big deal. So what is hot and what is not?

Models: The XC60 (picture above) did OK and there were some new model, which combined did the total no harm. The rest of the range was down and in some cases substantially. The EM90 electric MPV (picture bottom of page) made for the Chinese market seems to have flopped badly from the very beginning. It's Chinese brands that are dominating their home BEV market. 

Data & picture source: Volvo Cars.

Regions: Europe accounted for nearly half the sales (47%), but deliveries are down 10%. Foreign brands have been suffering in China and despite Chinese ownership and Volvo hasn't been entirely immune although a 4% drop isn't too bad.  

The US is the only region that has improved but I wonder if that was due to customers buying before prices rise and the termination of incentives. If so, 2026 will reveal that. 

BEV Regions: Volvo was going to be an electric car brand only by 2030 but that is no longer the plan. That is an obvious decision to make as we can see below. Electric sales are down 13% in 2025. The main region for Volvo regarding BEVs is Europe and that is down 22% YTD. 

Aston Martin Global Deliveries : 2025 (H1)

Aston Martin continues to deliver exceptional cars to discerning motorists, those who are stirred but never shaken. The model above is the Vanquish, 

US tariffs for the UK are capped at 10% up to 100,000 units per annum, an amount Land Rover achieves on its own. How marques like Aston Martin are supposed to get any relief is something that doesn't appear to have been considered. 

Added to that, well established and extremely stiff tariffs China applies to luxury cars are something they have to contend with. One definition of trade is the commercial exchange of goods and services to achieve mutually beneficial purposes and economic growth. 

Regions: For the first half of 2025, deliveries were down 4% which was a good result all things considered as exports to the US were held back for a period. Assuming stock on hand helped the Americas region, its sales were actually up 2%. Maybe the next quarter will be negative. 

The Europe (excluding the UK), Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region was down 20% and Asia, Pacific -9%. The UK managed a healthy 28% increase for 20% of the total or put another way 1 in 5 deliveries.

Models: It would be nice to have more detail but I appreciate what they do provide, which is much more than what most of their competitors do.

Sports cars were up 2%, the DBX SUV (picture to the right) flat at 0% and what Aston Martin calls 'Specials' (which I have labeled Valkyrie) were down 85%. The Valhalla is coming in Q4 so Specials should get a lift. 

AM is using what they refer to as a "disciplined approach to production and stock optimisation". This is important to achieving profitability in any business and luxury car making is no different. So delivery numbers are not the focus of AM. 

Data & picture source: Aston Martin.

The Valhalla is pictured below. If you are thinking of securing one, only 999 will be made so don't dilly-dally. 

Aston Martin Global Deliveries : 2023/24

Aston Martin deliveries are a mixed bag in 2024. The sports cars increased but the SUV took a volume hit, albeit reduced toward the end of the year. That has seen 2024 deliveries drop by 9% YTD, again much improved in the last quarter. SUVs sell well but every premium marque bar McLaren has them as part of their range so there is plenty of competition. 

Where I've listed the Valkyrie is in fact the Specials division, which is mainly that model but also now the Valour and in future the Valiant models. Next year I'll rename it to reflect that shift. 

Regionally, there is little to learn except they all took a similar path to each other. The evenness of it confirms the reduction in units delivered was managed. Which of course leads to the question of what the reason was for that?

Well, since you've asked Aston Martin explained why. It's been due to what is called product transformation as volume lowered as the new Vantage, upgraded DBX707 and V12 Vanquish were intoduced. Volume improved in Q4 which would confirm that. I've already noticed stronger sales in 2025. They also mentioned some supply chain disruptions. 

So in Q4, the UK and Americas increased while the rest wasn't so bouyant as they await the arrival of new models. Overall Q4 wholesale volume increase 8% as production increases. 

Volvo / Porsche US Model Sales : 2023/24

I've combined a Swede with a German Brand that are both premium and that compete with SUVs. Otherwise they are completely different. 

Volvo: Premium buyers are conservative and brand conscious so not always easily wooed. Volvo has a solid customer base and has recently attracted new customers as it returns to the former success it once enjoyed. 

Sales were down 3% with settled sales for most models. The 60 Series was up 29% so surprisingly the most successful ni 2024. 

That counted the C40's downward slump by 79%. Wow. Apparently, hybrids are doing well for Volvo but electric less so. This rush into electric has been pulled back by Volvo and others too.

SUVs lead the way for Volvo with the three at the top of the sales chart to the right of that persuasion. The usual USA's bigger is better philosophy is manifest as well. 125,000 sale is a good result I'd have thought.

Porsche: Sales were down 1%. The top selling model, the Macan dropped 7% which was the difference between sales being up or not. The Cayenne and 911 were OK but the rest down. Electric again not delivering with the Taycan down 37%.  

Data & picture sources: Subaru, Porsche.