Image credit: Courtesy of Lamborghini
Few car brands can highlight the owner's place in life like Lamborghini.
Limited-edition models such as the Reventón sports car, inspired by stealth fighters, easily cost more than a million dollars, and the Italian luxury car manufacturer may not accept your order.
To match the expensive price and quirky styling, these metal beasts typically feature 10- to 12-cylinder internal combustion engines that emit five times more carbon dioxide per mile than the average car.
So, not surprisingly, For four consecutive times, Lamborghini has failed to meet Europe's statutory annual CO2 emission targets. Without zero-emission electric vehicles reducing their carbon footprint, this situation is unlikely to change in the near future. However, for at least six years, Lamborghini's electric vehicles will not be on the market.
Even as the industry transitions to more sustainable electric vehicles, Lamborghini's CEO, Stephen Winkelman, believes that Lamborghini focuses on a generation that grew up in the 1980s and puts pictures of Lamborghini's iconic Countach sports cars on their walls as a child; but Lamborghini is equally concerned about the environment-conscious millennial and Gen Z consumers.
Stephen Winkelmann grew up in Berlin, was educated in Italy and had dual citizenship. In an interview with Goldberg Studios in Munich in September, he said: "We have great support from customers and fans, young and old, so I am not worried about the future of Lamborghini. ”
According to Winkleman, Lamborghini has a large community of supporters and is growing in size. He said his Instagram channel has more than 30 million subscribers. Ferrari, by contrast, has a glorious history and Formula One pedigree, but its Instagram channel has only 20 million users, leaving Lamborghini far behind.
Winkleman added: "We also have 1 million followers on TikTok. His spokesman was quick to point out that Lamborghini was the first automaker to achieve this.
ByteDance's social platform TikTok is particularly popular with young people under the age of 30, and its user-created videos can be widely shared and viral, so TikTok is somewhat equivalent to replacing the car posters that were previously hung in the bedroom.
Not afraid to be high-profile
While these fans on social media are unlikely to become Lamborghini customers in the future (the company delivered just 7,430 cars last year and Ferrari delivered 9,119), social acceptance by luxury brands is increasing. Without widespread social recognition, the complex envious expressions of the peers in golf clubs when they see luxury sports cars will turn into dislikes, which obviously cannot satisfy the owners' ostentatious psychology.
Porsche executives say the company's ability to seamlessly combine luxury with broad appeal is the secret of the luxury brand's long-standing success and the core reason Why Porsche never strayed from the unpretentious and elegant design of the original 911 model.
In contrast, Lamborghini has always been very high-profile, and its limited-edition out-of-print model, the Veneno, even boldly adopted a very cool and fancy design. Lamborghini's models are so dazzling that they always attract attention, so during China's anti-corruption campaign, the brand's sales were affected.
At the 2013 Geneva Motor Show, Lamborghini CEO Steven Winklemann stood next to the debut Veneno sports car. Image credit: Courtesy of Lamborghini
Today, the risk of its exaggerated image is that Lamborghini is already one step behind in the process of green mobility transformation represented by Tesla's success.
Winkleman argues that while models like the V12 Aventador have a higher carbon footprint than other cars, the company's overall carbon footprint is negligible because actual sales of these cars are small. And, he says, many cars are in the hands of collectors who usually just drive out on weekends for a ride, rather than the Porsche 911, which is designed as a car for everyday use.
He explains: "Our cars only travel a few thousand kilometers a year. ”
Almost in short supply
So what do you think about the competition from tesla model S Plaid, which started faster than Lamborghini? Elon Musk finally set a lap time record for an electric car on the difficult Nordschleife circuit, proving the car's sporty performance. The performance of electric vehicles is indeed being recognized by more and more people now, but will Lamborghini's slow action on green mobility necessarily weaken its appeal?
Winkleman retorted: "It's different than it used to be. No competitor's horsepower and acceleration have previously matched the supercar. Referring to the large number of orders, he said there was no sign of a decrease in consumer demand: "We focus on overall performance, including performance over corners, overall handling and design. ”
The data says it all. In 2020, Lamborghini's performance was impressive, with the second highest sales in history, and Winkleman said the company also set a new record in revenue (the company did not release profit figures because it has been merged into Audi). Lamborghini's plant in Sant'Agata, Bologna, is currently scheduled for production until July 2022.
What's more, its parent company, Volkswagen Group, has decided not to sell Lamborghini for the time being.
Five years ago, after Volkswagen's diesel emissions crisis, owning a niche supercar business went from impractical to unnecessary distractions and ended up being a big nuisance for the company to try to get out of when management cleaned up the company's business portfolio.
If Lamborghini is sold, it will be a devastating blow to the company, because it will no longer be able to use the Volkswagen Group's large amount of intellectual property rights in the ecological and environmentally friendly powertrain and lightweight materials at an affordable price, and it will no longer be able to enjoy the important benefits brought by Volkswagen's huge scale to the procurement of parts and components for its brands.
But that all changed in December. At the time, labor leaders persuaded opponents to cancel the auction of Lamborghinis on the Volkswagen board, and in exchange, the union agreed to the company's key personnel issues.
With the departure of group chief financial officer Frank Witt in April, Lamborghini appeared to be safe; in May, a Swiss consortium tried to buy the brand for 7.5 billion euros, only to find that it had become a "non-sale". Witt was the main architect of the reorganization of Volkswagen's business portfolio.
There is no clear source of funding for the electric vehicle business
Lamborghini's position in the Volkswagen Group seems to have been secured, so Winklemann was able to focus on implementing his business plan. He expects a record investment of more than €1.5 billion over the next three years to transform three models with internal combustion engines into environmentally friendly plug-in hybrids.
"From 2025 onwards, our emissions will be reduced by at least 50% compared to today's levels," he said. "This target is timely, in other words, it coincides with the co2 emissions target for the new motor vehicles in the first phase already in force in Europe.
Lamborghini has yet to determine its development plans for battery-powered cars, including the car's specifications, the type of battery used and the funding sources for the development of a fourth model. Winkleman said that in order to reduce engineering costs, Lamborghini may use Volkswagen Group's next-generation electric vehicle architecture SSP.
The only thing that is clear now is that it won't compete with the Aventador or the smaller displacement V10 Huracán sports car.
Winkelman said: "What we considered was that it would be at least a two-row four-seater car. In other words, although the design of new cars will continue to pursue the ultimate, it will also pay more attention to practicality. (Fortune Chinese Network)
By Christiaan Hetzner
Translator: Liu Jinlong
Reviewer: Wang Hao