Few car companies have clung as fiercely to their core brand identity as Lamborghini. The Italian manufacturer, for the most part, has created a reputation (and stuck to it) building spectacular, borderline preposterous-looking supercars powered by massive and raucous-sounding V10 and V12 engines.
But Lamborghini has just announced new plans that will mark an even more dramatic departure than the Audi-powered Urus SUV.
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Lamborghini’s freshly-revelaed plan for the 2020s is called Direzione Cor Tauri. (Lamborghini uses a bull on its emblem; Cor Tauri is the brightest star in the Taurus constellation.) The plan will consist of three phases, which will ultimately eliminate pure combustion engines from the Lambo lineup — and eventually lead to the production of an all-electric Lamborghini.
Phase 1, as per Lamborghini, will be “celebrating the combustion engine” in 2021 and 2022. Lamborghini will continue the “development of combustion engines for versions that pay homage to the brand’s glorious history.” The company will launch its two new V12 models before the end of the year as scheduled.
Phase 2 will be the hybrid transition. Lamborghini will launch its first hybrid series production car in 2021; he entire car lineup will convert to hybrid power by the end of 2024. Lamborghini believes that change will reduce the company’s emissions by 50 percent come 2025. Then finally, in Phase 3, during the second half of the 2020s, Lamborghini will add a pure-electric car into the mix — a new vehicle that will be a four-seat gran turismo with either two or four doors, and likely use the same architecture as the revolutionary VW Trinity and Audi Artemis, according to Autocar.
Lamborghini’s shift to hybrids is likely out of necessity. Europe is instituting new Euro 7 emissions standards in 2025, which would be hard for Lamborghini to meet with a pure combustion engine. And those regulations will merely be a placeholder before an outright combustion ban in many areas.