The new McLaren manufacturing plant in Surrey was opened this week by the Prime Minister, David Cameron, signalling good news for the manufacturing industry in the UK with the creation of 700 jobs which is likely to rise to 1,000 in the coming years.

The £50 million state of the art factory based on the outskirts of Woking, Surrey, will provide the platform for the Formula One car makers to start creating road cars on a large scale, putting them in direct competition with the likes of Lamborghini and Ferrari.

McLaren have already produced 100 of their MP4-12C sports car models which have a minimum starting price of £168,000 a piece. The initial run of 100 of the luxury MP4 sports cars have already been shipped to customers across the world, including Japan, America and Germany, although the plant has plans to produce 4,000 of these vehicle by 2015.

As well as setting themselves a high target of 4,000 MP4-12C sports cars to be produced in the next four years, McLaren also revealed that they hope to create a new model every year from the new Woking factory.

McLaren’s Chairman, Ron Dennis, revealed that Formula One will continue to play an important role in the existence of McLaren, although it will represent a smaller percentage of their overall business in years to come as the luxury car makers plans to concentrate its efforts in manufacturing road cars as well as racing vehicles.