It was almost a year ago that Automotive News spoke to Lamborghini CEO Stefano Domenicali about the carmaker potentially adding a fourth model to the lineup. Asked about the potential of a new 2+2 GT model picking up where the Espada left off in 1978, Domenicali demurred on the matter of a bodystyle. Instead, the CEO said the brand is "working hard to combine high performance with interior space and driving comfort in a package that, designwise, should be striking as well as highly efficient in terms of aerodynamics." A year on, Autocar spoke to Lamborghini R&D head Maurizio Reggiani, who hinted at how ideas have coalesced since. Autocar says a 2+2 GT "is due to be given the green light to arrive by 2025," and there's a chance the model could be all-electric.
Last we heard, Domenicali was explaining to AN that buyers weren't asking for a battery-electric vehicle. With a five- to seven-year horizon for the introduction of a fourth car, however, the CEO allowed that customers could be ready for one by 2027, so Lamborghini should be ready, too; nevertheless, he hedged the battery-only offering by saying it would come "together with a high-performance plug-in hybrid." According to Autocar's story, the brand's got more bullish on batteries in the interim. Reggiani said, "If you look at the timing for a fourth model line, there is the potential that this will be the right time for a full-electric vehicle" that can do at least 350 miles on a charge.
Not only could such a car make sense by 2025, Lamborghini could likely find some way to fit the model into the Volkswagen Group's scheme for EV domination. There are two electric platforms floating around the high-performance divisions that could get the nod; the J1 architecture under the Porsche Taycan and coming Audi E-Tron GT that will evolve into the J1 II come 2023, or the Premium Platform Electric (PPE) architecture that will support a range of models and is already rumored for an all-electric Bentley.
In terms of styling, Autocar repeatedly mentions cues coming from the 2008 Estoque concept (above). The four-door GT unveiled at the 2008 Paris Motor Show has been in limbo since then, the heart of rumors ranging from an Estoque range of everyday supercars to becoming a Lamborghini twin for an Audi A9. While it wouldn't take much to make the Estoque look fresh for a 2025 debut, our primary interest in the four-door would be the hope that it would spawn a production version of the 910-horsepower plug-in hybrid Asterion concept from 2014.
With 2025 being the earliest we could expect another member of the Sant' Agata family, Lamborghini still has a couple of years to think about what it wants to do and to monitor progress in battery technology. Before then, Reggiani said, "We first need to establish and consolidate the Urus line," because the hot-selling SUV will help pay for expansion, and there are the plug-in hybrid Aventador and Huracán replacements to think about.
The carmaker might also need to rethink its production strategy. Domenicali said to AN last year, "We think that we could get to 10,000 [annual sales] only by adding a fourth product." At the beginning of 2019, the brand said it would cap 2020 production at 8,000 vehicles to maintain exclusivity. That was before Lamborghini sold 4,554 examples of its three-model range in the first half of this year, and shareholders are clamoring for the brand to keep the floodgates open. A fourth model could mean a great deal more pressure — the good kind — everywhere.
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