Both a four-door, front-engined GT car and a third mid-engined supercar remain under consideration to become Lamborghini’s fourth model line, according to company boss Stefano Domenicali, but neither is likely to enter production until the middle of the next decade.
As such, Domenicali told Autocar at the Goodwood Festival of Speed that the Italian firm won’t take the decision about which to commit to until later, after more market research is done.
Reports have lately circulated that the company’s executives are split over whether its fourth model should be a front-engined GT car in the mould of the 2008 Estoque concept, or a third mid-engined model whose volume might allow Lamborghini to invest in its own all-new, carbonfibre-rich platform to use under future replacements for the Huracán and Aventador as well. The latter option has gathered support after Audi’s reported decision to kill the R8 supercar, which shares the current Huracán’s platform, in 2020.
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But Domenicali’s view is that, considering the transformative effect that the Lamborghini Urus super-SUV is about to have on Lamborghini, now is not the time to be aggressively expansive. “We have doubled our volumes over the last five years,” he told Autocar. “It’s a great time for us - and this is without the effect of Urus, which we have only just started to deliver to customers. It shows that the choices we take in terms of strategy and growth are the right ones, and we are very pleased for that.
“At the end of next year, we can be really close to 8000 units of annual volume. And we should not underestimate what that means for a company that was so small not so many years ago. We have to pause to understand who we will be. In this case, we are not worried about the product too much; we need to be focused on our business, and the change it’s going through. We are not any more in a garage; we are playing a different game, and we need a new mentality as a company.”
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“We need stability next,” Domenicali continued. “There is a saying in Italy that if you take a step that’s longer than your leg, you’re sure to fall. We don’t have to be too hungry; we should keep our feet on the ground, and not think too short-term.”
Domenicali confirmed that work has been done to propose certain models to broaden Lamborghini’s showroom range – but that none of them would figure as production cars for some time. “It is good to plan for the future,” he said, “but on the other hand we need to understand that we’re about to double the dimensions of our company. You cannot triple it in two years.”
“When the time is right, we have several ideas as to what might be the model to add, for sure. But this is about making the right decision at the right time – and we can’t make it now. As Urus shows us, we need to be what the customer wants; it takes time to know, you can’t just smell it in the air. So I don’t see a fourth model coming before 2024 or 2025.”
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This is the thing...
...Lambo wanted to twin Aventador with the Hurcan while it was still in development, but Audi, who manages Lambo, said no because they wanted to keep it with the new R8 like its predecessor. So my guess is that they will follow through on that with each cars next generation. Should Ferrari give the go ahead to build the Dino, the Lam's question or what that fourth model line might be, may be made for them! Regarding the Estoque, with the way the VW Group shares vehicle platforms/architectures, they could have built it years ago using either the hard where from the A8 or the Phaeton like they did with the original Continental GT and the Flying Spur. Yet with the customer base moving from sedans to SUV/CUV's, the Estoque's moment in the sun make have come and gone. All that being said, as beautiful as the concept Estoque still is after ten years, I'm surprised that a Chinese car manufacturer hadn't copied the look and have their own version of it on the streets of China today! That's the thing I do not get, why do they copy existing models, and then go through litigation over copyright infringement. When they can just build the Road ready Concepts that these same automakers makers have no intentions on making, with little to no fight. I can think of a number of pass road ready Concepts, that a number of different automakers showed at various Auto shows, that they never built. The Estoque for starters, Acura/Honda had a gorgeous full-size sedan concept A few years back, Infinity is another one, and I could go on. Will the beautifull Estoque ever be built, I guess we'll have to wait until the middle of the next decade to know for sure!
Well it might...
if the Sultan of Brunei wanted a couple I’m quite sure , money no object of course, that Lamborghini would oblige......
No hurry..
No they don’t need to be ,Lamborghini are doing fine with what’s coming out the Factory gate just now, the Urus will sell, what Supercar SUV isn’t?, the idea of a front engined Car sounds very interesting.
No hurry..
No they don’t need to be ,Lamborghini are doing fine with what’s coming out the Factory gate just now, the Urus will sell, what Supercar SUV isn’t?, the idea of a front engined Car sounds very interesting.