Summary
- Lamborghini is finally entering the full electric era with a new EV that will be a high-riding four-seater grand tourer, inspired by the Estoque concept.
- The upcoming electric Lamborghini will be loosely described as a crossover due to the constraints of the platform being used, but it will still have a unique and futuristic design.
- Lamborghini's first EV is a practical 2+2-seater vehicle because family-oriented customers are more open to going electric. The brand plans to fully explore EV technology before electrifying its supercars.
Lamborghini is an automaker that for as much as possible, will try to resist electrifying its lineup. Take away the screaming V-10s and V-12s, then you've practically taken away the soul and character of what a raging bull should be. As such, its first electrification foray with cars like the Sián is more of a half-hearted effort with its mild-hybrid technology that uses a lithium-ion supercapacitor.
With the new plug-in hybrid Revuelto, Lamborghini tried to make the V-12 as environmentally fit as possible whilst still preserving the charisma of such an engine. With its next model debut, though, which is supposed to be revealed at the upcoming next week, Lamborghini is finally stepping into the full electric era, and here are the things we know so far about the brand's next chapter.
It'll Pave The Way For Electric Raging Bulls
The next chapter in Lamborghini's highly-celebrated history will be a new nameplate and a completely new type of vehicle for the brand. Apart from the obvious that it will be the first electric vehicle (EV) that will wear the raging bull badge, this new EV will also be in a body style that we have not seen from a production Lamborghini. Autocar reports that it will be a high-riding four-seater grand tourer (GT) whose design is primarily inspired by the Estoque--a four-door super sedan concept that looked gorgeous and never reached production.
The reveal of the concept car that will preview the future electric Lamborghini will coincide with the Italian brand's 60th-anniversary celebrations. The company said in an official statement: "Ever since its foundation in 1963, Automobili Lamborghini has made one-off models that signal the technical and stylistic direction the company will take in the immediate future. These are design or technical prototypes or experimentation with new concepts to help develop the Lamborghinis to come." This basically confirms that the concept that we're about to see in the coming days will be the trajectory that the brand will take.
"In the 1960s, these one-offs were very often show cars bound for motor show parades. In more recent years, the designation changed from “one-off” to a category created specially by Lamborghini: “few-offs”, essentially a limited run of cars for the most loyal customers that pre-empt or enhance the most advanced technical solutions that will be used on production cars in later years. The same formula will be repeated in just a few days at Monterey Car Week in California, where Automobili Lamborghini will present the prototype of its first 100% electric car." the company adds without giving any further details on what the EV will be like.
Is Lamborghini Making Yet Another Crossover?
Sort of. That's because the upcoming high-riding electric Lamborghini will be constrained by the platform it's going to use. Though it was not revealed what it will be, the same Autocar report also says that because the electric Lamborghini is going to be riding on top of a dedicated EV architecture whose batteries won't allow for a low-slung ride height, designing a performance sedan around it would make the vehicle look awkward. I guess the engineers of the Porsche Taycan and Audi e-tron GT would have something to say about this, huh?
Anyway, Lamborghini's executives are loosely describing this upcoming vehicle as a crossover, but CEO Stefan Winkelmann highlighted that the different packaging requirements of an EV “open up interesting avenues” in terms of its eventual design. The design boss of Lamborghini Mitja Borkert even asserted to Autocar that all future vehicles from the firm will still “look like spaceships”.
What Is Lamborghini's Trajectory?
But why has Lamborghini decided to make its first EV a practical-ish 2+2-seater vehicle as opposed to a supercar? CEO Stefan Winkelmann says that such a vehicle will be more open to electrification because family-oriented customers are more open to going electric. There's also the fact that they don't want to dive into the EV realm with its supercars until the technology has matured enough. Lamborghini's own SC63 LMDh, which is a hybrid racecar that will compete in the Hypercar class of the World Endurance Championship (WEC) and the GTP class of the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship in 2024, will probably serve as a testbed for the Italian automaker's future EV plans for its supercars.
“For now, electrification suits these kinds of vehicles,” the CEO said. “That will develop, but we must plan for what we know will work best today. There are definitions that I think no electric car in our sector has yet resolved sufficiently: not just acceleration and handling behavior but also responsiveness, braking feel, and multiple acceleration protocols. These are unproven in high-performance EVs and things we must spend the next years working out.”
Obviously, this concept will just be the start of Lamborghini transforming into an EV brand. There will be more EVs to come out of Sant'Agata Bolognese in Italy, in which one of them will unsurprisingly include an electric successor to the Urus, in which a plug-in hybrid version is expected to debut in the coming years.
The last pure internal combustion engine-powered (ICE) vehicle that Lamborghini has released is the Huracan Sterrato. After that, the Revuelto flagship plug-in hybrid successor to the Aventador was released and comes with a massive two-year waiting list. From the Revuelto forward, all Lamborghini models will, at the very least, be a plug-in hybrid. The idea of a plug-in hybrid has eventually been accepted by Lamborghini fans and loyalists, as evidenced by the Revuelto's success.
“What’s clear is that customer perceptions have shifted,” said Winkelmann. “They are aware of the legislation and interested in the technology so long as it marries sustainability with enhanced performance from what has gone before.
More Lamborghini Models Are A Possibility
The investment in electrification, and of course its bet with the Urus has given Lamborghini huge financial stability to create its upcoming fourth model line. The possibility of creating even a fifth model is strong, though it's something that the Italian automaker will do haphazardly. When asked by Autocar about the possibility of more model lines, the CEO replied: “Going from a two-model company to a three-model company was a huge step. The investment, in terms of money and people, is huge. We must make each step work before we look to take further ones. The new car is our next hurdle.”
There's also another major reason for not aggressively expanding its lineup with new models, which I think is the right move for the brand. With the success of the Urus, it's easy to be tempted to create another SUV, but that won't necessarily be a good thing. When asked by the same publication about the possibility of another SUV, the CEO said: “There are limits to what we can do, both in terms of production numbers, which we don’t want to extend too far, and in terms of pricing, which we don’t want to take too low.”
So, yeah. Lamborghini is in good hands as it transitions into an electrified future, and you won't see the Italian supercar brand dilute its heritage and lineup anytime soon with a whole bunch of SUVs. Don't expect them to be cheap, either, because no one will buy a Lamborghini if it's going to be on the same level of desirability as a commodity car, right?