This Abu Dhabi investment institution holds the key to unlock McLaren’s long-promised electric SUV
After finalising the purchase of McLaren’s sports car arm, CYVN Holdings can now be talked about in the same breath as Tata Motors, BMW and the Volkswagen Group when listing foreign firms that are investing in blue-chip British automotive brands. Unlike its peers, however, CYVN doesn’t exactly trigger the same name recognition.
The deal was announced on 9 November in Abu Dhabi following McLaren Racing’s dramatic win at the country’s Formula 1 race at the weekend, sealing the constructors’ championship at the same time. Luxury automotive analyst Secret Supercar Owner described it as “the ultimate example of win on Sunday, sell on Monday” .
CYVN (pronounced ‘sigh-vin’, at least within McLaren) is an investment institution majority owned by the Abu Dhabi government and set up in 2022 “to support innovators and expanding businesses in the mobility sector”, according to its website.
The site is otherwise silent on future aims, containing no links, just 44 words and an ‘info@’ email address. Our requests for information have so far gone unanswered.
However, as with the Bahraini wealth fund Mumtalakat that sold McLaren Automotive, CYVN is another Gulf-state fund set up to spread oil riches into new ventures, here focused on automotive.
CYVN’s biggest investment so far is a combined $2.9 billion (£2.3bn) into Chinese premium electric brand Nio, giving it ownership of a fifth of the company and two seats on the board.
Perhaps more relevant to the UK is CYVN’s purchase last year of Gordon Murray Technologies (GMT), the EV arm of the supercar designer’s UK business.
GMT is heavily involved in the birth of another CYVN brand, Forseven, the UK-based luxury EV start-up led by former JLR head of engineering Nick Collins that’s busy hoovering British automotive talent for its Midlands operations.
No purchase price has been given for either GMT or McLaren Automotive, but it’s clear CYVN has deep pockets when it comes to achieving Forseven’s stated goal of “permanently transforming the luxury automotive landscape”.
Forseven recently brought on board former Lotus chief commercial officer Mike Johnstone, former Fisker chief technology officer David King and former head of the Volkswagen Group’s next-gen EV platform development, Christoph Meyer.
Meanwhile, former McLaren Automotive CEO Mike Flewitt has listed himself on Linkedin as managing director of both Forseven and Gordon Murray Technologies.
How this plays out remains to be seen but already CYVN has an advantage over former McLaren Automotive owner Mumtalakat. McLaren Automotive wouldn’t talk about CYVN’s plans, but the presence of Flewitt suggests the new owner is preparing to link its British operations and invest in the electric platform that McLaren needs to progress with its plan to go electric with its first SUV, a project that had stalled under Mumtalakat for cost reasons.
The first major sign that CYVN is going to play an active role in its investments was Nio’s announcement in October that it would establish sales in the Middle East and North Africa in partnership with CYVN.
The United Arab Emirates (of which Abu Dhabi is part) was chosen as the launch market. Nio also announced a new R&D centre in Abu Dhabi focused on autonomous driving and artificial intelligence.
In using its investments to kick-start the region as an EV tech hub, CYVN is following a path trodden by what could be seen as its main regional rival, Saudi Arabia’s PIF (Public Investment Fund), another equity fund stuffed with oil wealth looking for a new home.
PIF’s most high-profile automotive investment is a majority stake in US EV brand Lucid, which is now essentially being bank-rolled by the fund on its long journey to profitability. The company has even opened a factory to assemble cars in Saudi Arabia, albeit at small scale to start with.
PIF also owns a fifth of Aston Martin. As we expect to happen with McLaren Automotive and Forseven, PIF has used its influence to pair up Aston Martin with Lucid technology in the development of Aston’s first EV, now due in 2026.
Other PIF mobility investments via its Tasaru Mobility fund include a $100 million (£79m) stake in Mate Rimac’s new robotaxi operation Verne, as well as European supplier Benteler’s Holon autonomous taxi enterprise.
Mumtalakat’s ownership of McLaren Automotive was soured by the brand’s persistent lack of profitability, partly triggered by the Covid crisis. As more of a passive investor, it wasn’t prepared to invest the money that CEO Michael Leiters needed for the next big spending push. However, CYVN looks likely to take a more proactive role that makes use of overlapping investments, hopefully unlocking the new, more profitable segments the brand needs to carry on building sports cars before – just maybe – hitting the heights of profitability enjoyed by Ferrari and more recently Lamborghini.
