With the recent launch of the Lamborghini Temerario, the Italian supercar brand is inching closer to its goals for a fully hybrid lineup. As the aging Aventador and Huracan are inked into the history books, it’s appropriate to wonder which route Lamborghini will go. However, don’t expect any fully electric supercars from Lamborghini anytime soon, as the brand’s Chief Technical Officer, Rouven Mohr, recently told Motor1.
“At the moment, now, the time would not be right [for an EV], at least not in a super sports car,” Mohr told the ouetlet. “You have seen a lot of [electric] cars on the market that were not really successful.”
I’m not quite sure which electric supercars Mohr’s referring to, as most of them are uber-high-dollar, ultra-low-volume cars that aren’t meant for big sales, such as the Pininfarina Battista and Rimac Nevera. None of Lamborghini’s contemporaries have rolled out fully electric supercars just yet—though a crossover-esque Ferrari EV is reportedly launching next year. McLaren, and even Bugatti are all building hybrids, not EVs. However, it seems that the lack of perceived sales success isn’t even the biggest reason for Lamborghini’s EV-hesitancy. Instead, Lambo feels that EVs still lack the emotion required for its supercars.
“It’s clear that a full electric car from Lamborghini has to have this kind of excitement factor. It’s not only about maximum power, maximum acceleration. These are commodities,” Mohr added.
That doesn’t mean an electric Lambo can’t work in the future and the Italians know that an electric Lambo is the eventual endgame. But when it does arrive, it needs to be more about visceral excitement, rather than horsepower and outright speed. While Lamborghinis have always been among the fastest machines in their segments, they’ve always seemed to prioritize unhinged hooniganism over performance. And Mohr says that will remain the goal when the brand finally moves to full electrification.
“You can be sure when we bring the first electric Lamborghini we are not thinking to bring another standard electric car, one megawatt of power. It’s not like this. You need a differentiation,” he said.
It’s unclear what that differentiation will be, as Lamborghini isn’t quite there yet. However, Mohr did say that whatever it is won’t be any sort of internal combustion simulation, like the Hyundai Ioniq 5’s simulated engine noise and gear shifts. Instead, Mohr thinks that its EV supercar needs to offer something that internal combustion can’t.
Aside from power and performance, I’m not sure what that could possibly be, so that’ll be Lamborghini’s challenge to figure out. Until it does, Lamborghini is sticking with hybrids. And with the Temerario’s 10,000-rpm hybrid V8 powertrain, I don’t think any car enthusiasts are complaining.
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