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Of the nearly 4,000 cars that were on board the Felicity Ace cargo ship when it caught fire and eventually sunk, more than a dozen were Lamborghini Aventadors. That caused a problem for the Italian automaker as it had already ended Aventador production to make way for the supercar’s successor. This left paying customers without the final-run examples they had ordered, though they can rest easy now knowing that Lamborghini will replace the 15 Aventador Ultimaes that are roughly 10,000 feet underwater off the coast of Portugal.
This move was announced by Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann during a media roundtable with European journalists on Thursday. In total, there were 85 Lamborghinis destroyed in the incident, though most of them were Urus SUVs, which are still in production. Winkelmann mentioned those but specifically focused on the Aventador Ultimaes, which are hand-assembled and cost more than $500,000.
“This was the edition which was closing the production of the Aventador, and there were 15 on board of the ship,” the CEO explained, according to Automotive News. “We put our heads together, and luckily, we are able to replace those cars, so there will be no loss for our customers in the U.S. due to the sunken ship. This is good news.
“And all the rest we are able to replace. The Aventador was tricky, but we made it,” Winkelmann concluded.
Bentley CEO Adrian Hallmark confirmed his company also has a plan to replace the 189 vehicles it lost in the wreckage within six months. Meanwhile, Audi CEO Markus Duesmann said the German manufacturer will be able to build more cars to offset the loss of approximately 1,800 vehicles. It remains unclear what approach Porsche will take as it lost 1,100 of its own premium vehicles in the ordeal.
The Felicity Ace was set ablaze by an unknown cause on Feb. 16 and burned for more than a week before recovery teams could board it. While it was being towed to safety, the ship began to sink about 200 nautical miles off Portugal’s Azores coast on March 1. Constant updates came between those two dates, with news of its sinking washing out any hope for salvaged vehicles on board. Now, the concerns are largely environmental as people wait and wonder what will become of the oil, fuel, and lithium-ion electric vehicle batteries that sit just shy of two miles below.
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