Right now, as you read this there’s a prototype tucked away from the public at Lamborghini’s development centre on the outskirts of Bologna in Northern Italy and it’s a car that will change the direction of the supercar brand, its global boss tells CarsGuide.
Lamborghini’s Chairman and CEO Stephan Winkelmann is about to lead his company into the unknown – a future that will give his hi-po beasts silent electric motors and take away their raucous petrol engines. But as he captains his ship into unfamiliar territory, he has drawn on Lamborghini’s familiar past to help the company find its way to safety and success.
Winkelmann gave us hints of his plans for the ‘missing link’ in Lamborghini’s line-up last year. He told CarsGuide Lamborghini was working on a future model that would embrace electric powertrains but reach back to conjure up the brand’s roots of grand tourers.
“We want to have a fourth model,” he said.
“The idea of a fourth model is in our opinion what is fitting best for a car company like ours. For a car company like ours, if you compare it to other super-sports car companies or high-end luxury cars, it was formed by building and creating GT cars. These are the first things that we had and today this is what’s missing in the line-up.”
And now six months later we put the question to Winkelmann again: When is the fourth model coming and what will it be? His answer was more direct than we anticipated.
“This fourth model is going to arrive in 2028, it’s going to be the first electric car and it’s going to be a 2+2, but also with more ground clearance,” he said.
“So, we are creating a new segment and body style which is going to be so yes we are continuing to work on it.”
There’s a lot to glean from this. Lamborghini’s past is rooted not in the extreme two-seater supercars we know today, but in grand tourers such as the 350 GT and 400 GT in the 1960s. Then there was the V12 powered Jarama and V8 Urraco of the 1970s, both 2+2 seaters.
Sure, there was the beautiful Muira which really was a two-seater supercar for the 1960s, but it was the Countach in the 1970s which sent Lamborghini down the current razor-sharp design weapon path.
But it appears Lamborghini has come full circle, or it will by 2028 when the new model arrives.
Will it be inspired by the 350 GT with retro lines wrapping around modern technology? Possibly.
Will it share engineering from other brands in the same Volkswagen group? Very likely. Audi’s RS e-tron GT has two electric motors with a combined output of 475kW and can throw the swoopy four-seater electric vehicle from 0-100km/h in 3.1 seconds. That appears more than ample, and Lamborghini may be allowed to dial up the grunt even more. Could we be looking at 0-100 in two seconds?
You can bet though Lamborghini’s version will look outrageous and offend exactly the right people with its looks… oh and it will be named after a bull.
Keyword: Is this the electric 2028 Lamborghini GT to take on Aston Martin DB12, Porsche Taycan and Tesla Roadster?