Lamborghini battery electric 2+2 GT coming by 2027
Lamborghini's Sant'Agata factory hasn't put out a production four-seater car since the last Espada blasted down the road in 1978. We haven't stopped hearing rumors about another four-seat Lamborghini car since the Italians introduced the four-door Estoque at the 2008 Paris Motor Show. The subject's been especially warm over the last three years, ever since former Lamborghini CEO Stefano Domenicali told Automotive News in 2018 there was a five- to seven-year window to add a fourth vehicle to the lineup. Matters have firmed up since then, current CEO Stephan Winkelmann telling Autocar a few months ago that this fourth vehicle is in the initial stages of development and will hit the market "in the second half of the decade."
Winkelmann said the company hasn't decided on the platform or the bodystyle — those answers come next year — but he favors a 2+2 GT. AutoNews' crystal ball gazing into future product says we'll get a battery-electric version of just that between 2025 and 2027.
Porsche and Audi will contribute to the project, which is only natural seeing as they're the Volkswagen Group's mainstream performance brands leading the way with spicy EV sedans. With the changes that have happened at VW, the timeline means that the Italian brand might not adopt the Porsche Taycan's J1 platform nor the Audi A6 E-Tron's PPE platform, but could get the highly modular Scalable Systems Platform that debuts under the Audi Artemis in 2026. The SSP bones combine aspects of Volkswagen's mainstream MEB and performance-oriented PPE electric architectures. The conglomerate expects 80% of Group products to use it, counting some 40 million unit sales across all brands over the platform's lifetime.
The only details we have about what's coming concern the EV's mission statement. Winkelmann said he told designers "this car has to be recognized as something different to what we’ve done before" ... "[showing] a new way of designing cars" while still clearly being a Lamborghini. We would just like Lamborghini to remember that it has the Asterion (pictured) saved on a hard drive somewhere. Hint. As a middle child between the scarab-looking screamers the bull brand is most known for and the Urus SUV the brand makes the most money on, the electric GT is expected to sell annual volumes somewhere in between those siblings. As for capability, in 2019, company head of R&D Maurizio Reggiani mentioned 350 miles of range as a suitable figure. This initiative seems like a perfect place for Porsche to utilize its connection to and ownership stake in Croatian EV maker Rimac, but nothing of that has been suggested.
Before all this happens, Lamborghini has plenty else in store. The present three-model range adopts PHEV powertrains in 2023 and 2024, starting with the next-generation V12 flagship due in 2023 with a V12 heart, the same year the Urus electrifies its 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8. The Huracan goes in for its hybrid overhaul in 2024 and might emerge without its 5.2-liter V10, which isn't surprising since its Audi R8 powertrain twin has three-and-a-half wheels in the grave. Top Gear thinks the next Huracan, or whatever it's called, gets the 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8, too. And it's certain we'll see at least one more special editions, with Lamborghini's 60th anniversary coming up in 2023.
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