The extent to which OEMs have taken their foot off the pedal marked ‘electrification’ is now so prominent that it hardly qualifies as news when a firm confirms that a forthcoming EV has been delayed over viability concerns. But when Lamborghini is at it, a brand with a knack for designing cars that launch straight to the top of the global most-wanted list (and one with the technical might of the VW Group behind it) you do start to wonder about quite how long the malaise will last.
“We do not think 2029 is late to have an electric car,” Stephan Winkelmann told reporters at Lamborghini’s headquarters yesterday. “We do not think that, in our segment, the market will be ready in 2025 or 2026.” The electric car in question will be based on the Lanzador concept revealed in 2023 – a segment-splitting ‘Ultra GT’ that will introduce a completely new model line for the manufacturer.
Lamborghini said at the time that it planned to launch the production variant in 2028, and while that had recently been walked back to ‘by the end of this decade’, this was the first confirmation that the original schedule had changed. Winkelmann told Autocar just last month that his company retained the ability ‘to accelerate or delay the introduction of electric cars’ – evidently, and not unlike Bentley, which recently delayed the launch of its ‘Luxury Urban SUV’ till 2026, it has decided that the brake is preferable to the accelerator.
This despite the fact that Lamborghini’s CEO has repeatedly emphasised his confidence in the appropriateness of the Lanzador’s saloon-meets-SUV styling; not just in terms of making the most of battery-electric packaging, but also its usefulness in earning a greater market share for the brand (not least because it replaces no existing model). All of these things might yet prove true – but the impending arrival of an all-electric Ferrari (slated for reveal early next year) has apparently not convinced Lamborghini’s brain trust that there is much value in rushing to market with an alternative. Which surely says it all.