Lamborghini isn’t interested in hybrids
Stefan Winkelmann – president and Ceo of Automobili Lamborghini – said in a recent interview at the 2014 Geneva motor show that Lamborghini is not interested in making a hybrid hypercar in order to compete with the Porsche 918 Spyder, McLaren P1 or Ferrari LaFerrari.
He suggested that the upper mentioned hybrid flagship models are being developed more like proof of concepts than anything else, to show those brands that it is possible to make a hybrid hyper car, but Lamborghini is not interested in following their example.
All of the aforementioned hypercars have costs that exceed one million Euro and aren’t sustainable in the long run being heavily marketed upon their exclusivity because there is no constant market for cars that cost one million.
In his opinion, none of those hybrid cars can be performance cars due either to heavy batteries – which would make them a “sitting duck” – or if you forego the heavy batteries then you don’t have a hybrid, so it is beyond the point.
Winkelmann doesn’t thing – at least for the time being – that hybrid hypercars can actually be a feasible investment of time and R&D, saying that at least for the foreseable future Lamborghini will continue working only with naturally aspirated engines.
Lamborghini is part of the Volkswagen Group of companies now and it is theoretically possible that it could share development costs with other brands in the Group, just like it’s doing with Audi.
But even with this possibility Winkelmann is still very resistant to the idea of making a hybrid car saying that the future of that particular niche in the market revolves around vehicles becoming lighter, not heavier because of battery packs.
He also said that the type of exercise that Lamborghini is interested in is best illustrated by the Sesto Elemento.
