The Lamborghini Urus is ditching gas and going all-electric, with a hybrid version coming first next year.
In an interview with Autocar, Stephan Winkelmann, CEO of Lamborghini, confirmed the luxury automaker’s Urus model will transition to a hybrid-only version next year, as a precursor to the second-generation all-electric Urus, due to debut in 2029.
The new Urus, leveraging a twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8-based plug-in design, will be Lamborghini’s second venture into hybrid technology following the Revuelto, the luxury automaker’s Aventador successor. The hybrid Urus is slated to phase out the current pure-petrol V8 Urus by the end of 2024. It will then be replaced by the all-electric Urus in 2029.
Lamborghini’s first electric vehicle, expected to hit the market in 2028, will represent a new model line for the automaker without a predecessor. According to Winkelmann, this model will be a 2+2 GT with enhanced ground clearance, embodying “an innovative way of doing a GT,” he told Autocar.
“It will be about sustainability, have better visibility and have the design of a very sexy car, but still immediately recognizable as a Lamborghini,” he said. Winkelmann says the vehicle will incorporate “high-performance batteries that nobody else has and will be unique in the market.”
As the model’s development is still in the design phase, Lamborghini continues to straddle the fine line between “the boundaries of the dream versus what we can actually do.” The vehicle’s launch date of 2028 allows Lamborghini sufficient time to roll out various derivatives of the new Revuelto and the hybrid Urus.
This interval will also be utilized to revamp the Sant’Agata factory, where the Revuelto and Huracán replacements will share a production line — a first for these two ranges.
Winkelmann says impending regulatory challenges for internal-combustion-engine (ICE) vehicles will make it almost impossible for the ones with high displacement like Lamborghini’s to be compliant. He cited California’s stringent Clean Air Act as a prime example, suggesting that such legislation and subsequent bans on non-EVs will likely shape Lamborghini’s direction.
“I strongly believe that after 2035, legislation will be so high for ICEs that it will be almost impossible for the ones with high displacement like ours to be compliant,” he said. “You see this now with EU7 but also developments of EU6. It is very costly and getting impossible to achieve. To develop ICE is incredibly costly.”
Winkelmann is also skeptical about synthetic fuel being able to sustain future internal combustion engines, indicating instead that they might be more suited to preserving the current fleet of vehicles.”
He says it is up to the automaker to prove that full-electric supercars can be “as emotional as ICEs,” he said. “We’re working on it, but it is on us.”
By the end of 2024, the entire model lineup will have been hybridized,” a representative for Lamborghini told Robb Report. “This started with the launch of Revuelto earlier this year.”
Winkelmann also underscored Lamborghini’s philosophy of delivering “dream cars that over-exceed expectations,” and he says that’s always the goal, regardless of the power source.
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