CONFIRMED: McLaren P13 will arrive in 2015 to take on Porsche 911 & Audi R8

The new McLaren P13 – a smaller McLaren Supercar to take on cars like the Porsche 911 and Audi R8 – will arrive in 2015, McLaren confirms.

The original plan for McLaren’s new range of supercars was that the 458-bashing 12C would arrive first (which it did) followed by a more affordable mid-engined car – think nearer £100k than £200k – to mop up sales from the Porsche 911 and Audi R8.

But McLaren decided they should get the P1 out before the P13 so they could give their dealer network a nice halo model, and go head-to-head with LaFerrari and the Porsche 918 Spyder.

That plan seems to have worked quite well, with the P1 the only one of the trio of electrically assisted supercars actually in the hands of real owners so far as both Ferrari and Porsche struggle to get their cars working properly.

But now, with the McLaren P1 sold out, McLaren are turning their attention to the McLaren P13, the smaller, and cheaper, mid-engined McLaren supercar which McLaren has now confirmed to InAuto will debut in 2015.

Expected to get more organic styling than the almost generic 12C, the P13 is expected to take its design cues from the P1 and feature a de-tuned version of the 3.8 litre V8 found in both the P1 and 12C, delivering something around 500bhp, rather than the more than 900bhp the P1 can muster (together with its electric motor) or the 616bhp from the 12C.

If the McLaren P13 does come in at anything under £120k, it will undoubtedly steal sales from the high-end 911s and R8s and help McLaren to its target of 4,000 sales a year.