Bi-color Sportive Calipers Ci Badge Heated Transparent Clear Carbon Fiber Larini on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Lamborghini's first EV will be a sports car with usable rear seats

Lamborghini's first series-produced electric car will make its debut by the end of the 2020s. We know the EV will arrive as a fourth model line, not as a battery-powered version of an existing car, and the brand revealed some of the areas it's focusing on during the design phase. Company boss Stephan Winkelmann recently confirmed the yet-unnamed EV will arrive as a grand tourer with a 2+2 seating layout, so it will bring Lamborghini back to a segment it left many decades ago. Federico Foschini, the firm's chief marketing and sales officer, revealed that the rear seats won't be merely for show: He told Motor Authority that they'll be "comfortable." Reading between the lines suggests that the EV will fill the gap between Lamborghini's two-seater super-sports cars, such as the new Revuelto flagship, and the family-friendly Urus SUV. Foschini added that two adults will be able to travel in the EV's back seats. This is fairly rare in 2023: most of the 2+2s currently on sale, including the Porsche 911, have rear seats that are best left to small kids. One of the few exceptions is the new, second-generation Maserati GranTurismo, which is surprisingly spacious for its segment. The Bentley Continental GT is also big enough to accommodate four adults. It's too early to provide technical specifications because the EV isn't scheduled to land in showrooms until 2028 at the earliest. Regardless of what the model is powered by, Foschini noted that the development team is shooting for over 300 miles of range. "This is what you need, because it's a full electric vehicle. You have no alternative range," he told Motor Authority. Note that "over 300 miles" is the best-case scenario; the executive clarified that the total number will depend on the driving mode selected, which is also true for combustion engines. More details about Lamborghini's upcoming electric model will emerge in the coming months. In the meantime, the Italian brand is preparing to electrify its entire range by 2024. The first step on this path is the aforementioned Revuelto, which uses a gasoline-electric hybrid system built around a new, 6.5-liter V12 engine. Next is the successor to the Huracan, which will reportedly use plug-in hybrid technology as well.

Italian investigators search Lambo headquarters in VW probe

Italian investigators searched Lamborghini headquarters on Oct. 15 to look for evidence of managers' involvement in Volkswagen's emissions cheating. VW's main office in Verona was also inspected, according to Reuters. Lamborghini is owned by Volkswagen, and Lambo in turn is listed as the owner of VW Group Italia. Authorities wanted to find out if employees were conscious that the vehicles were skirting emissions rules. "It is one thing if I sell water and pretend it's wine, but if I sell water believing it is wine it's different." Verona chief prosecutor Mario Giulio Schinaia said to Reuters. Italian newspaper Gazetta del Sud reported that several managers in Italy were under investigation for alleged fraud. Prosecutors in Germany have also been rigorously investigating VW, and they recently staged a similar raid on the company's headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany. The automaker reportedly turned over documents and other data relating to the software defeat device. Meanwhile, VW's internal investigation has turned up little wrongdoing, though a recent leak suggested otherwise, and at least 30 managers could have known about the defeat device. The automaker has disputed that figure. Volkswagen of America CEO Michael Horn testified before Congress that he believed only a few individuals were involved. The situation hasn't been easy on VW in the US, either. The Department of Justice has also been pursuing an investigation into the automaker. Plus, state attorneys general are filing lawsuits against the company for defrauding customers. VW has until Nov. 20 to explain a repair for the problem to the California Air Resources Board. Related Video:

The mood at this year’s Paris Motor Show: Quiet

The Paris Motor Show, held every other year in the early fall, typically kicks off the annual cavalcade of automotive conclaves, one that traverses the globe between autumn and spring, introducing projective, conceptual and production-ready vehicle models to the international automotive press, automotive aficionados and a public hungry for news of our increasingly futuristic mobility enterprise. But this year, at the press preview days for the show, the grounds of the Porte de Versailles convention center felt a bit more sparsely populated than usual. This was not simply a subjective sensation, or one influenced by the center's atypically dispersed assemblage of seven discrete buildings, which tends to spread out the cars and the crowds. There were not only fewer new vehicles being premiered in Paris this year, there were fewer manufacturers there to display them. Major mainstream European OEM stalwarts such as Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Nissan and Volkswagen chose to sit out Paris this year, as did boutique manufacturers like Bentley, Aston Martin and Lamborghini. This is not simply based in some antipathy on the part of the German, British and Italian manufacturers toward the French market — though for a variety of historical and societal reasons that market may be more dominated by vehicles produced domestically than others. Rather, it is part of a larger trend in the industry. Last year, Mercedes-Benz announced that it would not be participating in the flagship North American International Auto Show in 2019 — and that it might not return. Other brands including Jaguar/Land Rover, Audi, Porsche, Mazda and nearly every exotic carmaker have also departed the Detroit show. Some of these brands will still appear in the city in which the show is taking place, and host an event offsite, to capitalize on the presence of a large number of reporters in attendance. And even brands that do have a presence at the show have shifted their vehicle introductions to the days before the official press opening in an attempt to stand out from the crowd. In many ways, this makes sense. With an expanding number of automakers, with diversification and niche-ification of models and with wholesale shifts that necessitate the introduction of EV or autonomous sub-brands, there is a growing sense that, with everyone shouting at the same time, no one can be heard.