Lamborghini was ending the run of the well-loved Aventador supercar, but that didn’t quite go as planned. The final 15 Lamborghini Aventador Ultimae supercars were heading to new adventures on the Felicity Ace ship when it caught fire and sank into the Atlantic back in February.
15 Lamborghini Aventador Ultimae supercars went down on the Felicity Ace
The Lamborghini Aventador Ultimae on display at Goodwood Festival of Speed 2021 | Martyn Lucy/Getty Images
According to Automotive News, Automobili Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann confined that the last 15 Lamborghini Aventador Ultimae supercars were on the ill-fated ship. U.S.-based customers were anticipating delivery of the now out-of-production Aventadors when the vessel ran into issues on the journey.
In case you missed the story, the Felicity Ace ship caught fire during the journey and could not be saved. After catching fire, the boat eventually sank after destroying everything on board. Winkelmann confirmed that the automaker was scrambling to replace the handmade Aventadors that sank on the ship.
“This was the edition which was closing the production of the Aventador, and there were 15 on board of the ship.”
Stephan Winkelmann
The luxury automaker previously disclosed that 85 Lamborghinis were on the ship, but the specifics were unknown. A significant amount of the vehicles on board were Lamborghini Urus SUVs, while the rest appear to be the final fun of Aventador Ultimae supercars.
Lamborghini is already working on replicating the lost Aventador Ultimae vehicles as quickly as possible
Winkelmann said the people at Lamborghini were able to come together quickly to decide to replace the sunken supercars. There will be no additional cost to those who ordered the vehicles besides the time waited. Since the Aventador Ultimae run only ended a short time ago, the factory will be able to remake the supercar quickly.
The Felicity Ace had more than 4,000 vehicles on board, most of which were luxury vehicles from the Volkswagen Group brand. It isn’t known yet what caused the blaze, but an official investigation is underway. For now, the automakers are working to replace the lost vehicles instead of dwelling on what was lost.
Unfortunately for the supercar maker, the Lamborghini Aventador Ultimae is hand-assembled at the marque’s Sant’Agata Bolognese factory. Beyond that, it was Lamborghini’s last gas-powered V12 engine project. The successor to the Aventador is supposed to be announced sometime soon if this situation doesn’t prolong that announcement.
Bentley and Audi also lost plenty of luxury cars on the ship
.@Bugatti, @Lamborghini, @VW, @Audi cars in 'Felicity Ace' ship fire to be replaced: https://t.co/uOqhkn4ES1 pic.twitter.com/7lUuX3469J
— Car and Driver (@CARandDRIVER) March 17, 2022
189 Bentley vehicles went down with the ship among the Volkswagen brand vehicles. These were already purchased by people and on the way to new homes in America. Bentley Motors CEO Adrian Hallmark said the brand has already developed a way to replace all of the lost luxury cars within the next six months.
“We’ve already found a solution for 100 that we can rapidly redirect, and we will catch the others up within six months,” he told Automotive News. He also said Bentley was doing some “clever things” with dealers to ensure all of its customers are happy, despite the long wait. Markus Duesmann of the Audi brand confirmed about 1,800 Audi vehicles did not make it on the journey. These will be replaced, but Duesmann said the brand was already working on those replacements.
Volkswagen, Bentley, and Audi lost about $401 million in vehicles when the Felicity Ace went down. The Lamborghini Aventadors account for at least $7,500,000 of that – even though it was only 15 total. Keep an eye out for the Aventador’s replacement – which has been caught out and about this week.
Keyword: The Lamborghini Aventador Is Back After the Final Batch Went Swimming