On the occasion of Alessandro Farmeschi’s first anniversary as Lamborghini’s CEO of the Americas region, we caught up with him at the New York auto show to chat about how Urus sales are going, plans to race the latest Rambo Lambo, the likelihood of the turbo V-8 to proliferate in Lamborghini’s sports car range, and more.
Urus to Go Racing
With almost 70 percent of Urus buyers new to Lamborghini and with the order bank full for a year of production, Farmeschi is quite pleased with the company’s decision to return to the SUV market. And with the recent successes the brand has experienced in Super Trofeo and GT3 racing, it’s no surprise that Lamborghini is scheming to devise a racing plan for the Urus. “We announced during the finale of the Super Trofeo that starting next year in Europe and the Middle East, we will introduce a special series with the Urus ST-X. Basically Urus ST-X is a racing version of Urus that will be used to offer clients and professional drivers the opportunity to compete on an environment that is a mix between off-road and track.” The company is still working out the details, but the plan is to set up dirt hills and challenges on the infield of pro racing circuits so the vehicles can demonstrate their performance chops on and off the road.
Turbos Are for Trucks
With the Urus breaking the longstanding Lamborghini taboo against turbocharging, we asked whether the twin-turbo V-8 might find its way into the GT cars. “At the moment, I’d say the strategy is to maintain naturally aspirated engines in the cars,” he said. “Because we still believe that, in combination with a hybrid, that solution gives a totally different experience. Just yesterday I was with our new Huracan Spyder Evo. I started the engine, and as soon as you sense that sound—bolder, deeper—you have the goosebumps. This is something I believe you cannot have at the same level with a turbo engine.”
Hybrid Urus Still Likely
With sales boiling along so well now, there’s no great urgency to update the Urus, but Farmeschi confirmed that a hybrid and/or plug-in hybrid is highly likely. A full electric version is less likely or much farther off in the future. “As a platform, for sure we will have a hybrid solution next; that is the natural evolution for a company like ours, being a super sport car where you need to combine performance and weight, where weight is an enemy of performance.”
Smaller SUV?
Porsche’s Macan is such a strong-performing vehicle that we wondered whether a small SUV might be the ideal fit for the long-rumored fourth Lamborghini model. After demurring with the usual “no comment on future models” boilerplate, Farmeschi downplayed the likelihood of any model being priced below those of the current range. “We must maintain an exclusive approach for our clientele. Now we are doubling the size of the company and the volume of the company with the SUV, but we are still speaking about seven thousand, eight thousand cars worldwide with Urus. We are a luxury brand so we have to price to balance the demand.”
Aventador: The Bargain Hypercar
We asked how Aventador sales are holding up so late in its model run, and learned that, despite having sold 8,000 of them since the launch in 2011, there is still a full order bank stretching more than a year into the future, with the vast majority of those being for the latest SVJ model (of which 900 coupes and 800 roadsters are planned for global production over the next few years). “This demonstrates that this is a platform that still has a lot to give. And we still maintain the record at the Nürburgring for street-legal cars with the 6:44.97. And the application of the ALA [active aerodynamics] system, the V-engine that has been retuned—it’s offering something that, I have to say, is a bargain hypercar.”
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