2014 Lamborghini Gallardo on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Audi CEO says brand's EVs are almost as profitable as its other cars

After, oh, a hundred years or so of building vehicles primarily powered by internal combustion engines, automakers around the world have been and still are pumping billions of dollars into the development of electric vehicle technology. Everything from platforms and batteries to motors and the software to control it all requires untold hours of development, and that takes time and money. Fortunately, it's not going to take long for that massive investment to start paying off, at least according to Audi CEO Markus Duesmann, who told Reuters in an interview that "The point where we earn as much money with electric cars as with combustion engine cars is now, or ... next year, 2023. They are very even now, the prices." As a brand, Audi contributed more than a quarter of overall profit for the massive Volkswagen Group, which has such powerhouse brands as Volkswagen and Porsche among others. Under the Audi umbrella are Lamborghini, Bentley and Ducati, and it seems those high-end branches aren't going anywhere, at least for now. "These brands ... are very valuable very profitable brands, where we can even expand the synergy level in the future," Duesmann said in the interview. "There are no plans whatsoever to get rid of them." Despite the overall profitability of the brand, the ongoing global chip crisis is causing headaches. "We had a very strong first half in 2021. We do expect a much weaker second half," said Duesmann, who added, "We really have trouble." In fact, so serious is the trouble that the brand is forced into "a day-to-day troubleshooting process" to limit the chip-shortage damage. The good news for the automaker is that Audi has been able to boost its profit margin from 8% prior to the pandemic in 2019 to 10.7% in the first half of 2021. The bad news is that various chip shortages aren't expected to get a whole lot better over the rest of the year. Related video:

Lamborghini goes from carbon fiber to carbon neutral [w/video]

Draw up a list in your mind of automakers striving to "save the environment," and you might be forgiven for not ranking Lamborghini very high on impressions alone. After all, it only makes supercars with double-digit cylinder counts, displacing over 5.0 liters, and producing in excess of 600 horsepower. Hardly what you'd characterize as "green" modes of transportation, then. And though it recently showed a hybrid sports car concept, it has opted next to build an SUV instead. However the Raging Bull marque is out to rehabilitate its image by changing the reality of its carbon footprint. It's just not about to do so by watering down the supercars for which it is known. "We are not here to please a single customer. We are here to pass this territory unharmed to the next generation." – Lamborghini CEO, Stephan Winkelmann This week the Italian automaker officially opened its new Trigeneration Plant – which is not, lest you think otherwise, an assembly facility spanning multiple eras of production. It's a new power plant, built on the site of the company's headquarters in Sant'Agata Bolognese, that will generate its electricity, heating, and cooling, all from the same source of natural gas. The plant has an installed (potential) capacity of 1.2 megawatts, and will (practically speaking) be capable of generating over 25,000 MWh every year. That'd be enough to power all the houses in Sant'Agata, the otherwise sleepy town which Lamborghini shares with about 7,000 residents. The clean-burning facility is estimated to cut out 820 tons of CO2 every year, and by 2017 is slated to run on biofuel to raise that figure to a claimed 5,600 tons per year. The question is, who cares? Sure, people buying EVs and free-range chickens want to be assured that their buying habits fit their environmental conscience, but does the average Lamborghini buyer really care if their new supercar came from an environmentally friendly factory? "If we are going to do the things only because of the importance first thing for the customer, we would not be here anymore," Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann told us during roundtable discussion at the opening of the Trigeneration Plant. "We are not here to please a single customer. We are here to pass this territory unharmed to the next generation." "It would be ridiculous if you would say we are going to save the world.

2020 Lamborghini Huracan Evo Spyder debuts ahead of Geneva Motor Show

Lamborghini hasn't wasted any time in showing us the drop-top version of the updated Huracan, set to be called the Huracan Evo Spyder. It takes all the goodness of the recently revealed Huracan Evo, but loses the roof. Surprised? Yeah, neither are we. This supercar will be shown at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show, but Lamborghini has given us photos and a bunch of the details today. We drove the 2020 Huracan Evo around the F1 circuit in Bahrain last month, and are happy to report that it's still every bit the brutally quick and incredible Lamborghini that it replaces. With the roof down, you'll be able to hear that screaming 5.2-liter V10 a little better, though. The Spyder has the same 640 horsepower and 442 pound-feet of torque that the coupe has, but loses a couple tenths in the run to 62 mph, according to Lamborghini. No surprise – the Spyder is a significant 265 pounds heavier than the normal Huracan Evo, bringing it up to a hefty 3,400-pound dry curb weight. A coupe will get there in 2.9 seconds, but the Spyder is rated for 3.1 seconds. Such a shame (read: sarcasm). Top speed is unchanged from the coupe at 202 mph. Lamborghini doesn't specify if that's with the roof up or down, but it's safe to assume up. The soft top roof operates at the same speed as before, going up in 17 seconds at up to 31 mph. A rear window powers down behind you to enhanced enhanced exhaust sound, just like the previous Huracan Spyder. You'll get all the same performance features as the normal Huracan Evo, including the predictive-logic vehicle dynamics control system that anticipates the driver's next move. There's an enhanced version of the Lamborghini Piattaforma Inerziale accelerators and gyroscope sensors to monitor the car's position at any moment in time. The Spyder's looks adopt a lot of the elements from the normal Evo. A new front splitter, larger air intakes, and slotted spoiler help air flow better around and through the car. The same twin-exhaust coming out the rear bumper will play a wonderful note for the passengers with the top down. As is always the case, the Spyder is more expensive than the hardtop. Base price is $287,400 for the Evo Spyder, and the first deliveries will be in spring of this year. Related Video: