2021 Lamborghini Huracan Evo Rwd Coupe on 2040-cars

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Lamborghini could sell 10,000 vehicles this year

MILAN — Lamborghini could sell 10,000 cars this year for the first time, its CEO said, as the luxury sports carmaker reported a rise in profit and revenues for the first half. The Italian brand, a subsidiary of Germany's Volkswagen, sold 5,341 cars between January and June, up 4.9% on the same period last year. The United States was its largest single market, with 1,625 deliveries. Chairman and CEO Stephan Winkelmann said it was not easy to make forecasts due to market uncertainties, including with raw materials, but added that selling 10,000 cars this year was a "feasible goal". "It is not something we are obliged to achieve, but it's important to show what the health of the company is and how big (clients') willingness to buy our cars is," Winkelmann said. Supported by the success of its Urus SUV, which costs around 200,000 euros ($219,900) before tax, Lamborghini has in recent years expanded its output, relying on solid demand from wealthy car lovers. It delivered over 9,200 vehicles in 2022. Rival Ferrari, whose headquarters is less than 40 kms (25 miles) away, shipped more than 13,200 cars last year. In the first half, Lamborghini's revenues grew 6.7% to 1.42 billion euros and its operating income rose 7.2% to a record 456 million euros, the company said. Lamborghini is investing 1.9 billion euros to 2027 in its shift to hybrid and electric cars, but further investments are expected. The carmaker earlier this year presented its first plug-in hybrid model, the Revuelto, adding to the Huracan 10-cylinder sports car and the Urus in its current range. The line-up is set to become all hybrid next year with the new Urus and a new sports car replacing the Huracan. Lamborghini plans to launch its first fully-electric model in 2028 - three years after the first promised by Ferrari - followed by a battery version of Urus in 2029. "What matters is to be there at the right time, when we know we are at our best and the market is ready," Winkelmann said. He added the use of so called e-fuels was an option, but only for the brand's sports car models. But any decisions about possible e-fuel powered models for the next decade would depend on future regulation in different parts of the world, not only in Europe, Winkelmann said. Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Lamborghini Revuelto revealed, a V12 making 1,001 horsepower

As VW electrifies, it questions the role of Lamborghini, Bugatti, Ducati

FRANKFURT — Volkswagen needs to change to stay relevant in the electric and digital vehicle era and will announce "important steps" to that end before the close of the year, Chief Executive Herbert Diess said on Wednesday. "Volkswagen needs to change: From a collection of valuable brands and fascinating combustion-engine products that thrill customers with superb engineering — to a digital company that reliably operates millions of mobility devices worldwide," Diess told shareholders at the company's virtual general meeting. Vehicles need to stay in contact with customers, offer new services and comfort functions on a weekly or even daily basis, he said. "We will take further important steps to set the course for this in the rest of 2020," Diess said. Senior executives told Reuters the company is reviewing what role its high-performance brands Lamborghini, Bugatti and Ducati will play as the company increasingly focuses on electric, digital and autonomous vehicles. Volkswagen, which also owns VW, Audi, Porsche, Seat and Skoda, is looking at whether it has the resources to accelerate development of electric platforms for smaller brands at a time it is investing billions to transform its more mainstream cars. Asked whether Ducati, which is known for making noisy combustion-engined motorbikes, has an electric future, Markus Duesmann, who oversees research and development for the group, said: "It will not take long until we see an electric Ducati." Whether Ducati, which is a medium-sized premium motorbike brand, would offer an electric variant, depends on whether a bike could offer range comparable to a combustion-engined variant, Duesmann said. Advances are being made in battery technology which could make this possible, he added. Separately Frank Witter, the company's chief financial officer, in response to a question about whether a sale of Lamborghini is planned, said Volkswagen does not comment on speculation about potential divestments. Lamborghini's Chief Executive Stefano Domenicali this week announced his departure from the sports car maker to take on a new job as president of Formula One. VW needs cash Volkswagen is reviewing the future of these three high-performance brands as part of broader quest for more economies of scale as it shifts to mass producing electric cars, senior executives told Reuters.

Lamborghini Huracan to get What3Words navigation

The Lamborghini Huracan will soon launch a novel navigation system that can take you to any point on the globe with incredible specificity. It relies on a geocoding system called What3Words that, as the name implies, uses a combination of just three words — rather than building numbers and street names — to describe locations. Here's how it works. The creators of What3Words divided the entire planet into 10 by 10 foot squares and randomly assigned three words to each one. There are 57 trillion squares in all, each with three words pulled from a pool of 40,000 in the English language. For example, the Washington Monument has a pretty confusing street address: 2 15th St NW, Washington, DC 20024. What3Words identifies that location as "congratulations, fingernails, desk". The idea is that those three words are much less prone to misinterpretation, especially by a computer or voice recognition system. Its level of granularity also has advantages if, say, you're trying to tell a friend where you're waiting at large concert venue. It can also get very precise in areas where there are no roads or buildings at all. In fact, the app helped rescuers locate a group of lost hikers in the U.K. To be fair, the system isn't exclusive to Lamborghini; the Huracan is just the first to roll out this technology in conjunction with Alexa's voice activated navigation, according to the New York Times. The Huracan will receive this functionality this year. For the record, the 2018 Mercedes A-Class was the first car to use What3Words for navigation. Of course, the system isn't perfect. Unless someone gives you a What3Words address, you still have to translate a regular street address to the What3Words address in order to use the system. Also, its random nature doesn't really provide an intuitive relationship between one location or another. With street addresses, you understand that 100 Main Street and 102 Main Street are near each other, while 900 Main Street might be far away. And you can see whether you're getting closer or farther by looking at the numbers. The square directly north of "congratulations, fingernails, desk" is "dome, next, senses". So there might still be a while before What3Words is adopted for widespread use. We could see this being useful in an off-road vehicle meant to venture into the wilderness. Still, the more options the better, and if What3Words does become commonplace, the Lamborghini Huracan will be ready.