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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:

Tour Lamborghini museum with Google Street View

If you find yourself in northern Italy with some spare time on your hands, we could think of few places better to spend it than the Lamborghini Museum in Sant'Agata. The 16,000-square-foot facility houses what is surely the most magnificent collections of Raging Bulls in the world on two levels of glassed-in floorspace. But if your travel plans won't be taking you to Bologna, Lamborghini has teamed up with Google to provide the next best thing.
Now all you've got to do to get a closer look at the Lamborghini Museum is open another tab in your web browser and head over to Google Maps (or fire up the Google Maps app on your smartphone or tablet) to see the whole museum in Street View. There you'll find everything from production models like the Miura, Countach, Diablo and Murcielago to limited-production rarities like the Reventon and Sesto Elemento, prototypes like the Estoque and Zagato Canto, a Gallardo highway patrol car and a handful of Lamborghini-powered F1 cars, like Nicola Larini's 1991 Modena 291.
You can even get into a few of them, which the museum's curators aren't likely to let you do in person. So whether you're at home, at the office or in Sant'Agata Bolognese, it's there for you to check out on Google Street View. Short of that, you can scope out a few screen shots in the gallery above and the details in the press release below.

Italy to offer Lamborghini 100 million euros to build Urus

The Lamborghini Urus' prospects for production may have just received the impetus they need as the Italian government is preparing to offer significant incentives to produce the high-end SUV in the country. According to a report from Bloomberg, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's government is prepared to extend as much as 100 million euros (approximately $112 million) – but not in cash. That'd be a bit much for the borderline bankrupt national government. Instead the motivation is reportedly being offered in the form of tax breaks and other such incentives. In exchange, Lamborghini would pledge to hire 300 new workers to build the crossover. The Urus, for those who may not recall, was a crossover concept which Lamborghini presented way back at the 2012 Beijing Auto Show. We caught a closed-door glimpse of it in New York shortly before its debut and saw it again in Monterey the following summer. Ever since, the Bolognese automaker has been petitioning its patrons at Audi and Volkswagen to give it the green light, but the Germans have been dragging their feet at the prospect of investing the necessary capital to pull it off. Lamborghini is reportedly hoping to get a final decision next month, and the government incentives could help it make the business case to its parent company. While the Italy's terms would require final assembly to take place in that country, much of the work could end up being done at the same plant in Bratislava, Slovakia, where the Volkswagen Touareg, Audi Q7, and Porsche Cayenne are built. Bentley is expected to undertake a similar process for its new Bentayga, with assembly to be finalized in the UK. Related Video: Featured Gallery Lamborghini Urus Concept: Monterey 2012 View 10 Photos News Source: BloombergImage Credit: Copyright 2015 Drew Phillips / AOL Earnings/Financials Government/Legal Plants/Manufacturing Lamborghini Crossover Performance tax incentives