Lamborghini is well under way with the research and development programme for its first electric sports cars, which the firm says will tout blistering on-paper performance figures but put dynamic engagement and emotional appeal first.
The Sant’Agata firm revealed the Lanzador concept last year as a vision of its first production electric car, which is due on sale around 2028 as a high-riding four-door GT car with more than 1000bhp.
Details of electric successors to Lamborghini’s more traditional supercars remain under wraps, but CEO Stephan Winkelmann says no electric Lamborghini will rely exclusively on lofty power and performance figures as a means of differentiation.
He revealed that Lamborghini engineers “are testing a lot of electric cars” as part of the EV development process and hailed encouraging signs that the driving experience is not necessarily ubiquitous.
“We see that there are a lot of differences, which is a good sign,” he said. “It means that you can adapt electric cars to the needs of the brand.”
Winkelmann added that while an electric Lamborghini will inherently pack more power and accelerate quicker than any model that has gone before, the priority for the company is making sure it can provide a truly unique driving experience that emphasises the emotional appeal of its cars.
“The fact of the numbers is important,” he said. “For power output, we are talking about at least one megawatt [1341bhp]. This is for sure. This is one of the pillars of measurement for the performance of tomorrow when it comes to full electric.”
But Winkelmann added: “Much more important than these facts and figures for Lamborghini is how you feel in the car. Performance is divided into two. One part is acceleration, top speed, lap time and braking behaviour.
Join the debate
Add your comment
This is supposed to sound reassuring. It doesn't. It's actually very distressing. None of this makes me look forward to EV Lambos, or EV generally. Winkelmann says it won't be just about the numbers -- there will be emotion, really there will -- but then talks all about the numbers and how important they will be. We really need vastly more performance than we have now??? Where can one get anywhere near experiencing the performance that current fast cars offer? Certainly not on a road. Even on a track, how many owners are capable of really driving the current range of "merely" 700 and 800 hp cars? Or 600 for that matter? We should look forward to at least 1350 hp? For what? And with huge weight gains. I'm sure they'll be fun to drive near their outrgeous limits (again, where and when can you do this?), but at fast road speeds? There is no chance that these cars will be anywhere near as fun to drive on the road as the cars I have now -- that have "just" 420-520 hp. And have a real voice. And this is supposed to be good for the environment? Sure it is. Huge batteries, huge e-motors, huge everything to deal with the weights and forces involved, huge amounts of environmentally UNfriendly production to make them.
Oh, please, it's a Lambo, they're not supposed to be friendly with the environment. For that you can get a super efficient Zoe.
It's not possible to more completely miss my point.
It wasn't so long ago that the one essential thing was how long the Tyres lasted at sustained high speeds, the Veyron for instance had Tyres rated to only 237mph, they also cost £20,000 at set! and, if I remember correctly, changed every 5,000 miles!, how are Lamborghini and other brands dealing with Tyre issues?, Cars can only go so fast, there comes a limit to what a human can cope with and I d assume you'd have to reasonably healthy to deal with the G forces , suspension development, how does that cope with the power and torque?. I know this sounds cynical , and I know it's fun to see these cars going down long long runways as fast as they can go, but usually you see them somewhere like Monaco or Saudi Arabia or on YouTube being bumped or badly parked, question, does any of the tech get passed down the car chain?
Somehow the more I hear car makers talk about how they can differentiate electric cars the less believable it seems.