Lamborghini maps a cautious course toward electrification

DETROIT, May 18 (Reuters) - Supercar brand Lamborghini plans
to invest $1.5 billion to produce an entirely gas-electric
hybrid lineup by 2024, but its first fully electric model will
not appear until the second half of the decade, the brand's CEO
said.

Lamborghini, part of Volkswagen AG's
Volkswagen Group, and other players in the rarified market for
high-performance sports cars, including Ferrari NV,
Aston Martin Lagonda and McLaren, are wrestling with how
to shift their lineups to battery power without losing the
visceral performance that supports their premium pricing https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/how-mclaren-aims-rebuild-supercars-roar-into-electric-era-2021-02-16.

Lamborghini's plan is to shift its current models - the
Huracan and Aventador sports cars and the Urus sport utility -
to hybrid, gasoline-electric powertrains by the end of 2024, the
brand's chief executive, Stephan Winkelmann, told reporters in a
video briefing ahead of Tuesday's announcement.

During the second half of the decade, Lamborghini plans a
new, all-electric model which will likely have seating for four,
Winkelmann said. The exact design of that model has not been
decided, he said, but, "in terms of the design, the sexier car
is a two-door car."

That timetable would put Lamborghini behind Ferrari, which
has promised to have a battery-electric model by 2025 https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/ferrari-postpones-2022-targets-due-pandemic-shares-dip-2021-05-04.

Governments around the world have begun proposing deadlines
as early as 2030 for phasing out petroleum-fueled internal
combustion vehicles in order to hit climate goals.

For makers of high-performance sports cars, abandoning
internal combustion is both a technical and emotional challenge.
The roaring sound of a 12-cylinder engine is as core to the
Lamborghini brand as the edgy, aggressive styling of its cars or
its rampaging bull logo.

On a technical level, lithium-ion batteries cannot operate
for long at top speed on a track.

"We have to define what sportiness is in the new era, in the
battery electric era," Winkelmann said. "Range is the top
priority. This is still something we have to work on."

(Reporting by Joe White in Detroit
Editing by Matthew Lewis)