Lamborghini Takes a Pass on Electrification for Reasons Other Than Claimed

Matt Posky
by Matt Posky

Lamborghini has said it is more or less open to the idea of an all-electric car, though it definitely hasn’t considered it seriously. While parent company Volkswagen AG has made lofty promises of sweeping electrification and imposed its zero-emission mindset onto the majority of its automotive brands, the Italian supercar manufacturer is not yet among them.

However, Lamborghini has shown that it’s not immune to industry trends. Its almost-family-friendly Urus SUV begins production next month and the automaker has said it plans to launch a hybridized version by 2020. While you can’t ignore the LM002 that preceded it, that’s still a far cry from the pavement-scraping exotics it’s best known for. There has also been plenty of speculation that the company was developing a Porsche Mission E-based electric model called Vitola. Lamborghini dispelled those rumors and has since gone on to say that a battery-only car won’t be on the table before 2025 — and perhaps not even then.

“Electrification is an area of great attention for us, but I’m not expecting it will happen in the short term,” Lambo CEO Stefano Domenicali told Reuters at the Geneva International Motor Show.

Domenicali claims the reason revolves around a need to preserve the basic nature of a supercar — specifically referencing weight and performance. He also said that the automaker has to consider the cost of developing an EV that would meet Lamborghini’s standards for a supercar. It’s easy to poke holes in this argument, as the Urus shares a platform with the Bentley Bentayga and Audi Q7. Neither of those are svelte vehicles and, while nobody expects the Lambo to match the Bentley’s 5,340 pound heft, the Urus will undoubtedly tip the scales at over two tons.

Sharing internals with other companies lowers development costs, and Lamborghini would almost certainly adopt its electric motor from another VW brand. However, some financial investment would still be required, and that’s the crux of this issue. While I want to believe that the company cares about what a fire-breathing bull-badged supercar should represent, the real reason the Italians are taking a pass on electric cars has everything to do with sales. An EV simply wouldn’t do well enough to rationalize placing it on the market, at least not as a high-performance, low-slung automobile.

Lamborghini has enjoyed good sales figures since the recession, but expanding on them doesn’t appear to be in the cards over the next few years. “For the medium term, I don’t see a change in that substantially positive trend, especially since economic regions like the U.S. and China are showing unchanged growth.” Domenicali explained.

He says production of supercar models will be capped at around 3,500, with a little wiggle room left over — enough for a few hundred extra cars, but no more. The reason is simply to maintain the brand’s exclusivity. Of course, those rules do not apply to the upcoming SUV. If the Urus achieves the kind of success seen by Porsche’s Macan or Cayenne, it could easily double the company’s vehicle output.

“We will be prudent. Of course we will grow sustainably, but being in the luxury market we must not take every growth potential that is there,” said the CEO.

Matt Posky
Matt Posky

A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.

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  • Anomaly149 Anomaly149 on Mar 10, 2017

    Smells like there's some brand positioning going on too - with Audi angling for the electro-tech side and Lambo for the gas performance side for now.

  • SCE to AUX SCE to AUX on Mar 10, 2017

    "A man's got to know his limitations." - Harry Callahan

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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