2024 Lamborghini Urus S Sport Utility 4d on 2040-cars

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Audi CEO says brand's EVs are almost as profitable as its other cars

After, oh, a hundred years or so of building vehicles primarily powered by internal combustion engines, automakers around the world have been and still are pumping billions of dollars into the development of electric vehicle technology. Everything from platforms and batteries to motors and the software to control it all requires untold hours of development, and that takes time and money. Fortunately, it's not going to take long for that massive investment to start paying off, at least according to Audi CEO Markus Duesmann, who told Reuters in an interview that "The point where we earn as much money with electric cars as with combustion engine cars is now, or ... next year, 2023. They are very even now, the prices." As a brand, Audi contributed more than a quarter of overall profit for the massive Volkswagen Group, which has such powerhouse brands as Volkswagen and Porsche among others. Under the Audi umbrella are Lamborghini, Bentley and Ducati, and it seems those high-end branches aren't going anywhere, at least for now. "These brands ... are very valuable very profitable brands, where we can even expand the synergy level in the future," Duesmann said in the interview. "There are no plans whatsoever to get rid of them." Despite the overall profitability of the brand, the ongoing global chip crisis is causing headaches. "We had a very strong first half in 2021. We do expect a much weaker second half," said Duesmann, who added, "We really have trouble." In fact, so serious is the trouble that the brand is forced into "a day-to-day troubleshooting process" to limit the chip-shortage damage. The good news for the automaker is that Audi has been able to boost its profit margin from 8% prior to the pandemic in 2019 to 10.7% in the first half of 2021. The bad news is that various chip shortages aren't expected to get a whole lot better over the rest of the year. Related video:

2021 Lamborghini Urus gets new Pearl Capsule design edition, adds tech in new year

The 2021 Lamborghini Urus is coming into its third year with some updates. The most notable of those is the addition of a Pearl Capsule design edition. It’s meant to bring even more style and exuberance to the table, which couldnÂ’t have been easy to do with a Urus. However, the Pearl Capsule does succeed at standing out with its bright color palette. All of them will be two-tone cars with a bright base color, black roof and black accents all around. You can choose Giallo Inti (yellow), Arancio Borealis (orange) or Verde Mantis (green). Gloss black paint is used on the roof, rear diffuser, spoiler, side sills, wheels and other trim. Those 23-inch wheels also receive a single circular outline in the main paintÂ’s hue. YouÂ’ll also notice that the brake calipers are the same color as the car, too.  ThereÂ’s more to be seen on the interior. All Pearl Capsule cars will feature a two-tone interior design with the color of the paint featuring heavily throughout it. The seats, center console, door trim, dash trim and even the cupholders receive splashes of color. You can select perforated Alcantara seats (pictured) and Lamborghini also throws in some additional carbon fiber and black anodized aluminum buttons/details. Lamborghini says itÂ’s extending the available color palette for 2021, as well. ThereÂ’s a new metallic grey and range of matte colors available through LamborghiniÂ’s Ad Personam customization program: blue, white, black and grey. If you were wondering, Lamborghini says the most popular color choices so far have been yellow and a range of greys.  Other updates for 2021 are minor. Lamborghini has come up with a new key design; the parking assistance package features a more comprehensive parking assistant (it can now park itself in parallel and perpendicular spots), and thereÂ’s a new Sensonum 17-speaker audio system available as an option. Pricing for the 2021 Urus starts at $218,009, which is $18,000 more than the base price of the 2020 Urus we just tested. Happy buying. Related video:

ItalDesign Giugiaro Parcour loses its lid

What could possibly be better than a two-passenger, off-road performance coupe built atop the Lamborghini Gallardo platform? A topless version of said vehicle, of course. We've already showed you the ItalDesign Giugiaro Parcour in fixed-roof form, and now we're able to bring you some live shots of the Parcour Roadster.
Honestly, the Parcour's lines probably look better on the hardtop model, but the Roadster's lack of top did give the ItalDesign Giugiaro crew a chance to change up the design ever so slightly. The windshield has been chopped and uses carbon-fiber pillars doubling as the vehicle's rollbars, while the hoops over the seats are also designed with safety and styling in mind. In addition to the roof, the Roadster also removes the separator between the passenger compartment and the engine bay meaning there is absolutely nothing to filter the noise created by the mid-engine 5.2-liter V10 putting down 550 horsepower.