Lamborghini to turn away from electric cars and focus on PHEV

Lamborghini will officially shelve plans to launch its first electric car before the end of the decade, all but confirming rumours that the Lanzador concept will reach production as a plug-in hybrid (PHEV), rather than a full EV.

Speaking to Auto Express, Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann said: “When it comes to our type of cars, [our customers] don’t see [EV] as an alternative today. We could do [an EV]”, he said, “but I think it’s the wrong offer for the next years, for Lamborghini.”

He told us his team needs to decide “in the next few days, weeks, what to do” – suggesting a public announcement on Lamborghini’s future powertrain strategy is imminent. “For the Lanzador, it is something we have to decide this year”, he said.

Winkelmann justified his stance, citing stagnating market demand for electric vehicles, as well as public perception of the brand: “If you go only three, four years back, the adoption rate of electric cars was much higher than today. Also the forecast; this curve flattening for the general market. For us it's even more.

“We are those who make the people dream”, he added. “It’s not just about the 10,000 who are buying the cars; on social media we have more than 70-million followers and the majority will never be able to buy a car. The fan community is almost equally important as our customers”.

When Lamborghini first announced the Lanzador electric 2+2 back in summer 2023, it was billed as a glimpse at the firm’s zero-emissions future. Winkelmann said at the time: “We are opening a new car segment: the Ultra GT. This will offer customers a new, unparalleled Lamborghini driving experience thanks to pioneering technologies”.

However, success with the hybrid Revuelto and Urus SE, as well as strong demand for the new Temerario, has prompted Lamborghini to push ahead with PHEV development, including for the production-ready Lanzador.

“The big step we made was to move the entire brand from ICE to PHEV – and this worked out”, Winkelmann told us. “This was an important and crucial moment in time because it’s additional weight, it’s additional cost, more complexity – a lot of explanation for the customer.

“We made one promise: the new cars will have a new design, they will be faster, and the benefit for Lamborghini, for the world, and also for you, is they will have lower CO2 emissions. This is the commitment we gave up-front and in a very simple way.

“So we’re happy and pleased this is working out. Luckily, we always had the saying that with the full-electric cars, we will have enough time to decide, and make up our mind if something is changing,” Winkelmann told us.

The Lambo CEO also confirmed that the company would continue to produce its lauded V12 past 2030, and that the next-generation Urus SUV will be offered with a plug-in powertrain when it arrives before the end of the decade.

“We looked into it in a very analytical way”, Winkelmann told us. “We recognised that there is no way that we are going to do the Urus as a BEV. So we did a PHEV. The next generation is also a PHEV, which is coming in the year 2029”.

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