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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:

Lamborghini and Bentley rack up record sales in 2022

Sister companies Lamborghini and Bentley independently announced that they set a sales record in 2022. Both firms posted a big increase in deliveries, and their announcement comes shortly after Bugatti and Rolls-Royce released their own record-breaking 2022 sales figures. Lamborghini delivered 9,233 cars in 2022, an increase of 10% over 2021 (which was a record year as well). Its best-selling model is the Urus, which accounted for 5,367 deliveries (a 7% increase over 2022). That's not surprising; SUVs sell well. What's rather stunning is that Huracan deliveries soared by 20% to 3,113 examples in 2022. Finally, Lamborghini delivered the last 753 examples of the Aventador. Geographically, the United States remains Lamborghini's biggest market; the company delivered 2,721 cars there in 2022 (an increase of 10% over 2021). China takes second place with 1,018 deliveries (up 9%) followed by Germany (808 cars; up 14%), the United Kingdom (650 cars; up by 15%), and Japan (546 cars; up 22%). All told, deliveries in the EMEA region(Europe, Middle East and Africa) jumped by 7% to 3,484 cars. The company's outlook for 2023 is bright. It will notably unveil the Aventador's hotly-anticipated successor, and the yet-unnamed model will stand out as its first series-produced hybrid model. Its historic factory in Sant'Agata Bolognese, Italy, will keep busy as well. "We now have the opportunity to focus on our next objectives also thanks to an 18-month waiting list," said company boss Stephan Winkelmann. While it's too early to tell if 2023 will be another record year for Lamborghini, executives stress that they want to keep the company's growth in check. The aim isn't to rival, say, BMW in terms of volume. "The idea will always be to have one car less than demand," Andrea Baldi, the head of the Americas region for Lamborghini, told Autoblog in 2022. "We will never become unexclusive. That is a promise." Bentley is celebrating for many of the same reasons: It sold 15,174 cars in 2022, an increase of 4% over 2021 and its first annual result above the 15,000-unit mark. Here again, there are some interesting surprises hidden in the numbers. Its best-seller was the Bentayga, it represented 42% of the firm's sales, and 2022 was the big SUV's most popular year — that's an impressive feat for a car released in 2015. The Continental GT range represented 30% of sales and the Speed variant accounted for 31% of those. The Flying Spur represented the remaining 28%.

Lego Technic's first Lamborghini is a 1/8-scale, 3,696-piece Sian

Autoblog may receive a share from purchases made via links on this page. Pricing and availability are subject to change. The sold-out Lamborghini Sian FKP 37 represents a milestone in the company's history — its first production-bound hybrid, its most powerful street-legal car, and the first Raging Bull added to the Lego Technic catalog. Denmark's best-known brick builder turned the Sian into a monster of a kit made up of 3,696 pieces. They come together to form a 1/8-scale model that's over 23 inches long, five inches tall, and nine inches wide. We hope you have a big enough desk (or shelf) to display it on. Going big allowed designers to make the plastic Sian surprisingly realistic. Opening the scissor doors reveals a detailed cockpit with a steering wheel that turns the front wheels and a pair of shift paddles connected to a fully functional eight-speed sequential gearbox. Up front, there's a frunk containing a Lamborghini-branded bag and a unique serial number that unlocks special content, though neither Lego nor Lamborghini has shed light on what buyers will be able to access with it. Most of the space behind the passenger compartment is hogged by a naturally-aspirated V12 engine with movable pistons, carbon fiber-like trim, and a plaque showing its hypothetical firing order. Builders will also need to mount Lamborghini-branded calipers onto the discs and assemble a movable suspension system on both ends. Lego's version of the Lamborghini Sian FKP 37 will be available on its website and in its stores on June 1. Other retailers (like toy stores) will begin receiving the model on August 1. Lamborghini told us it will cost $380. For context, the life-sized, 819-horsepower Sian is strictly limited to 63 examples worldwide and every example was spoken for before the model made its public debut at the 2019 Frankfurt auto show. Lamborghini hasn't revealed pricing for it, either, but it's reasonable to assume that it landed well into seven-digit territory. 2020 has been a good year for fans of scaled-down Italian cars sold with some assembly required. Lego Technic's first Ducati, a Panigale V4 R, made its debut in April as a 12.6-inch long, 646-piece kit with a two-speed transmission. In March, the rear-engined Fiat 500 joined Lego's Creator Expert catalog in a box with 960 pieces. Related Video: