The Gordon Murray Group has been reinventing itself for years now, with projects focusing on production, electrification and even cheap transportation for emerging economies.
Now, however, the group started by and named for the famed Formula 1 designer (now executive chairman of the group) is just focused on million-pound-plus supercars.
Last year the company sold its EV-focused Gordon Murray Technologies (GMT) to an investment agency controlled by the Abu Dhabi government. That helped to pay for the production and further development of the V12-powered T50 supercar and the delayed follow-up, the T33. The cars are sold out until 2028, but the headache for CEO Phil Lee is navigating the shift to electrification in a niche with little appetite for electric product. Autocar Business caught up with him at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
Where are you with production on T50/T50S and T33 supercars?
"We’re about a quarter of a way through the 100 T50 cars. We'll have those finished towards the end of the year. Then T50S [track version] goes into production early next year. The T33 will follow that in 2026. And as a result of various things that happened during last year, we were able to open our brand-new facility over in Windlesham [Surrey] and start production."
Update us, please, on the company make-up.
"Gordon Murray Automotive is the primary part of building the supercars. And then Gordon Murray Advanced Engineering is development and engineering. It doesn't do any external work any more. It’s just focused on Gordon Murray products. We've restructured Gordon Murray Technologies and Gordon Murray Design into electrical architectures, chassis systems and battery technologies."
Why did you sell Gordon Murray Technologies (GMT)?
"We won a contract in the Middle East to develop electric vehicles [ForSeven, led by former JLR engineer Nick Collins]. And that became huge very, very quickly and started to swap our focus. It became quite clear that in order for us to keep our focus on supercars that [ForSeven] should take over the technology side and work on electric vehicles. It enabled us to be in charge of our own destiny."
How much did you sell GMT for?
"I can't tell you that. The main thing is that it gave us a focus with the staff and the investments to be able to put out these cars here and keep the product line." What have you learnt after shifting focus entirely onto the supercars?
"I was always worried that we needed to protect the V12 where automotive is going. What is now is proven in my head is that there is a big demand for V12 and that emotion in a supercar. You can see that from the fact we're sold out now to 2028. I'm not completely sure that there is a place for electric supercars in the way that there is V12."
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