Lamborghini will 'never give up' on the V12, says sales chief

Perhaps the most intriguing part about the electric revolution is how the world’s most storied manufacturers will retain their brand identity. Like Lamborghini, which has been sitting in the thick of it for over 60 years now.

When the Urus was introduced back in 2018, many wondered if the maddest supercar maker of them all had turned conformist. Was that justified? Probably not.

“The Urus brought a lot of awareness to the brand,” says Lamborghini’s head of sales and marketing, Federico Foschini. “But these customers then started to buy into the rest of our range, and now we are in a complete renewal of our portfolio. By August, we will have the strongest lineup in Lamborghini’s history.”

Lamborghini has never produced as many models as it’s planning to do, and one of them will be the successor to the V10-powered Huracan.

“When the Huracan’s successor does arrive, it will be a big surprise to many. There will be certain unique selling points which show that there’s so much more to Lamborghini than what we’ve seen before.

“It’s already been over a year since we retired the Aventador, but the Huracan is still very much successful. That’s especially true when it comes to the final three versions: the Sterrato, the STO and the Technica.”

Though most details have been kept hush for the Huracan’s replacement, we do at least know about the four-seat, all-electric hyper GT that’s rumoured to land in 2027, called the Lanzador.

“The Lanzador has two missions. The first will be to convince our more loyal or traditional customers that they can enjoy electricity in a sporty way. We are still finding ways of improving its design.

“The other is to try and target customers who are digitally engaged with technology. You can’t just step inside a car now and say ‘this is a car, and we just want to move’. You need to think from a 360-degree approach.

“Convincing our customers that the sportiness is there will be difficult. I’m a big petrolhead myself, so accepting this change is hard for me. But I’ve seen what our technicians are doing and it’s convincing me. There’s still a lot more that we can do and improve from what’s on the market out there today, and this is the target of the Lanzador.”

More specifically, where will the focus lie for Lamborghini with cars like the Lanzador, and every other EV which follows it?

“I think when you enter a new type of technology, you cannot think to apply the same things you did with the combustion engine. Hybrids are being accepted by many customers because even motorsport is heading in that direction. But when it comes to all-electric, you need to find a way to be emotional.

“That emotion comes mainly from the perception of the customer and usually means body movement - like when you shift up or down a gear - in addition to the view and the sound. We are working on all of these things, and have got solutions.

“One key value of our brand is authenticity, and this should also be true with the sound. To recreate a V12 engine note is something that I would not do because you need to manage the new technology knowing its potential, and not purely to lean on the past.”

Ah, the V12. A little sad, perhaps, that we likely won’t have them poking around for much longer. But what if developments with synthetic fuels can be made over the next few years, will Lamborghini find a way to retain the power of 12?

“Synthetic fuels are something we need to seriously consider because if all of a sudden we can’t make combustion-engined cars any more, we need to find a way to still be Lamborghini. It won’t change how versatile we want to be with our model powertrains, but it does give us the possibility to open a new door for the next generation of supercars.

“We want to retain the V12 if we can because it’s just so iconic. And if there is a way for us to do that, we will never give up on it.”