A lot of moving pieces would come together if this were to happen
by Kirby Garlitos, on LISTEN 06:35It’s no secret that Lamborghini has its eyes set on adding another model to its current lineup. That long-rumored model, a 2+2 grand tourer that takes inspiration from the Estoque Concept from 2008, is reportedly close to receiving the green light from Lamborghini executives.
Specific details haven’t been revealed, but there’s growing buzz that the model will arrive by 2025. More importantly, it could become the first-ever all-electric vehicle to wear a Lamborghini badge. If this model gets the nod, it would complete Lamborghini’s long-game plan of offering a four-model lineup that also includes the Aventador, Huracan, and Urus SUV. A four-door Lamborghini model also has the potential to alter the current electric saloon landscape in the auto industry. That’s a scenario I can’t wait to see unfold in the coming years.
Raise your hand if you’ve heard about this rumor before. A Lamborghini sedan has been in the works or at least rumored to be in the works for some time now that it’s hard to identify exactly when it started.
Perhaps it all started when Lamborghini unveiled the Estoque Concept back in 2008.
That certainly got people talking, in part because it was one of the first times that the Italian automaker hinted at the possibility of building a four-door model. Eleven years have passed and countless other rumors have come and gone, but it appears that Lamborghini has yet to officially shut the door on a four-door, 2+2 grand tourer.
All that leads us to a new report from Autocar. According to the report, the world is closer than it’s ever been to seeing a four-door grand tourer Lamborghini. The decision-makers over at Sant’Agata Bolognese are close to officially giving the green light for the said model. In so doing, the four-door model would complete Lamborghini’s grand plans of having a four-model lineup. This development, by itself, is already cause for celebration for those who have waited for these plans to come to life. Make no mistake about that. But it’s also not the end of it.
The same Autocar report also hinted about the possibility that this four-door grand tourer could also make history as the first-ever Lamborghini to run on pure electricity. That’s one of the options that are reportedly on the table for Lamborghini. If an all-electric powertrain doesn’t work out, there are also people from within the company who have engaged in discussions on whether to make it a front-engined car or a mid-engined model.
But those plans have taken a back seat to the potential all-electric Lamborghini, in large part due to the proposed timetable for this model’s arrival.
To be clear, the four-door Lamborghini isn’t expected to arrive until 2025. That’s a little over five years from now. That means that there’s plenty of time for all these plans to change. Then again, there’s also plenty of time for all these plans to come together, especially if the all-electric revolution in the auto industry is in full swing by the time 2025 arrives. That’s the expectation of Lamborghini, as crystallized by the automaker’s head of R&D, Mauricio Reggiani. “If you look at the timing for a fourth model line, there is the potential that this will be the right time for a full-electric vehicle,” Reggiani told Autocar.
Timing notwithstanding, the important questions that will inevitably be asked is how Lamborghini plans to develop this model. Without going into the specifics, Reggiani hinted that Lamborghini won’t use a dedicated platform specifically for this model. That would cost a lot of money, not to mention the time to develop it.
Instead, the likely scenario would be for Lamborghini to use an existing platform, specifically the current J1 high-end electric platform that’s currently used by the Porsche Taycan and the upcoming Audi E-Tron GT.
Granted, Lamborghini would have to develop a version of the J1 platform to suit its needs for the proposed electric car, but having the platform at its disposal is a huge advantage since it would help reduce the significant costs required to develop a pure-electric car.
Another question that Lamborghini wants to answer is how it’s going to package the model once it receives the go signal. Obviously, it’s still a Lamborghini so performance would have to play a big role in the overall makeup of the model. It doesn’t have to be as fast as the Huracan, Aventador, or whatever supercar it has in its lineup by 2025. The key, in this case, would be the car’s ability to combine all the different worlds — power, performance, luxury, efficiency, range — and combine all of them into one package. It’s easier said than done given what the demands and expectations are for this model, but Lamborghini can take comfort knowing that it has a huge infrastructure in place — i.e. the Volkswagen Group — to fall back on if it needs anything to help cover its bases.
As it is, we can expect this model to carry a range of at least 350 miles on a single charge. That’s the conservative range automakers are targeting for luxury grand tourers. That could also be a low bar by the time 2025 rolls around. So, we could be talking about an electric car that has 500 miles of range, or, dare I say, 1,000 miles of range. The latter scenario is unlikely, but, again, six years is a long time in the auto industry.
On that note, we should also expect this car to pack performance numbers that you can say are ambitious targets for 2019, but attainable goals for 2025.
If you think an electric Lamborghini that can go from 0 to 60 mph in three seconds would be cause for joy in 2025, then you’re kidding yourself.
If anything, this grand tourer could be capable of posting a 0 to 60 mph that’s closer to two seconds than three seconds. That’s the expected demand for performance cars by the middle part of the next decade.
All of this is fun conjecture for us. We’re not under any pressure to deliver projections, estimates, or project outlines. But it’s a lot of pressure for Lamborghini, particularly since this model isn’t something that the automaker has a long track record developing. Make no mistake. Even if this model isn’t scheduled to hit the market until 2025, there’s a minimum four-year lead-up in research and development for an automaker to feel comfortable about reaching its target.
So if Lamborghini wants this all-electric, 2+2 grand tourer to hit the market by 2025, it’s going to have to have all its eggs neatly arranged by 2021, at the latest.
There’s still some time, sure, but the longer Lamborghini waits before making a clear-cut decision, the lesser time it’s going to have to get the actual ball rolling.
Further reading
Read our full review on the 2009 Lamborghini Estoque.
Read our full review on the 2018 Lamborghini Aventador S.
Read our full review on the 2019 Lamborghini Urus.
Read our full review on the 2019 Lamborghini Huracan Evo.
Source: Autocar
