Lamborghini’s Chief Technical Officer, Rouven Mohr, says that gasoline powertrains aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. Despite an eventual EV, the brand has no plans to depart from the internal combustion engine fully, Mohr told CarExpert. Lamborghini intends on making use of ICE powertrains for as long as it can, in spite of the Lamborghini Lanzador. The company’s upcoming 2+2 grand tourer with a fully electric drivetrain won’t be here for some time, as it was recently delayed by a year, making its potential release window a full four years out. In the meantime, it’ll be Lamborghini as we’ve always known it.
Cylinders Aren’t Going Anywhere At Lamborghini
Lamborghini, despite the stratospheric power figures found in every one of its cars, doesn’t believe it’s a “numbers” brand. Instead, Mohr says the company relies on all of those old sports car clichés, like passion, emotion, and experience, over a spec sheet. For those reasons, Lamborghini believes it’s best that the gasoline engine stick around for as long as possible. “If you speak about the future of combustion for sure, for us, we are aiming to continue as long as possible,” Mohr said.
The theater and the emotional thrill, Mohr says, that Lamborghini provides to customers are inextricably linked to combustion engines — at least among Lamborghini’s current crop of buyers. “In our segment, we are even, we are the pinnacle of the emotions. The other brands that say they want to be the pinnacle in the lap time, they want to be the pinnacle in motorsport and brand heritage. We are the pinnacle in emotion – that’s what we’re aiming to be. You know, therefore for us, it’s fundamental that we try to continue [internal combustion power].”
Lamborghini On The Future Of Gasoline Engines
It’s not about staying old-school, either. In fact, Mohr said this while speaking at a technical briefing for the upcoming Temerario, which uses a hybrid V8 powertrain, much like the popular Urus SE SUV. Instead, he insists the brand has some fresh ideas on the future of combustion. “This [use of combustion engines] is clear not because – you know, sometimes some colleagues say, ‘ah, it’s not so much about the old world’ – [but because] we still think that we have a lot of ideas to transport, let me say, the combustion future.”
TopSpeed’s Take
It’s easy for Lamborghini to make an argument for the combustion engine. For now, hybridization allows it to meet emissions regulations in most places, and the demand for gasoline-powered supercars among the super-wealthy is pretty much always going to exist. The Italian marque probably sells about as many total cars as Ford does F-150s in a given year, but that’s what makes the decision work. Low production volumes mean combustion engines can stick around for longer, and at Lamborghini, the noise is arguably the most important part of the ownership experience.
Source: CarExpert
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