The company is looking into whether synthetic e-fuels can be used to reduce emissions
Lamborghini’s CEO is no longer sure what the future of electric performance will look like.
Stephan Winkelmann recently told Bloomberg that the all-electric Raging Bulls some have been expecting are no longer as close as they once appeared. That’s because the market his company and its peers were depending on might not exist.
The executive said that EVs have no problem delivering the performance people expect from a supercar, but struggle to replicate the rest of the experience. The class’s more emotional aspects, like the roar of a snarling V-12, just can’t be recreated by an electric motor—at least not yet. Customer interest has so far been tepid because of this.
“It’s too early, and we have to see down the road if and when this is going to happen,” he told Bloomberg.
That doesn’t mean that Lamborghini is giving up on EVs, though. The company is still developing a first battery-powered model, which is set to debut in 2028. Its hybrid lineup—which will include the Revuelto, Urus SE, and a follow-up to the Huracán by year’s end—may stick around longer than was initially expected. Winkelmann also said his company will explore other ways of reducing emissions produced by combustion engines, including the use of synthetic e-fuels. But this would also be dependent on regulations. The E.U., where Lamborghini is based, is expected to review its plan to ban the sales of combustion-engine vehicles by 2035.
Winkelmann isn’t alone in his concern for the future of high-performance EVs. Aston Martin chairman Lawrence Stroll cited a lack of customer interest as the reason why his company was delaying the debut of its first EV and turning its focus to hybrid models. Mate Rimac, the creator of the Rimac Nevera, revealed earlier this month that his company still hasn’t sold out of the boundary-pushing electric supercar nearly three years after it was unveiled.
“At that time, we were thinking electric cars would be cool in a few years—the best cars, or with the highest performance and so on,” Rimac he said at the Financial Times’s “Future of the Car” summit. “We notice [now] that as electrification is becoming mainstream, people at the top end of the sector want to differentiate themselves.”
Because of this, there’s no guarantee that the marque will build another electric supercar. Instead, Rimac says his company will focus on building vehicles that stand out from the pack and are the “most exciting at the time.”
