Geneva motor show 2013: New McLaren and Ferrari set to sell out quickly

The McLaren P1 will be sold out within weeks, it has been confirmed, with the company selling a further six cars on the opening day of the Geneva motor show.

The £866,000 hypercar was revealed in production form for the first time in Geneva, but customers have been placing orders since the near-identical concept car was revealed at last year’s Paris motor show.

An insider told Autocar that since Paris the company had been evaluating around 700 serious expressions of interest. Having initially pledged to sell less than 500 cars, representations were made by early buyers to reduce the number of cars sold to make them more exclusive.

“The price and performance are secondary to the exclusivity for many buyers,” said the insider. “The last thing a buyer of this kind of car wants is to pull up to a hotel and find someone else has an identical car, and they also want to know that the exclusivity is there to make it likely the cars will appreciate in value in time.”

McLaren has also sought to avoid selling cars to people buying them as an investment. “We want them to be used for the purpose they have been engineered for,” he said. “It isn’t just a case of writing a cheque – there is a process of evaluation to go for.”

Likewise, the £1m LaFerrari has yet to sell out, although marketing boss Nicola Boari says it is likely to be a formality. 

“We are in the process of talking to our 700 most exclusive customers, and when that process is over we expect to have sold all 499 cars,” he said.