Outside of the 2019 Lamborghini Urus with a base retail price starting at $200,000.
Adam Jeffery | CNBC
Lamborghini come in record profits in 2020 as its wealthy customers — especially in China — rode the global bull market in style.
Without considering a mandatory factory shutdown of over two months during the Covid-19 pandemic, the “raging bull” of the auto world presented 7,430 cars in 2020, down only 9% from the record high in 2019. Sales topped 1.6 billion euros ($1.9 billion at the tendency exchange rate), down 11% from 2019, but the company said profits increased to a record high as chaps ordered more pricey, highly customized cars.
The outlook for 2021 looks even brighter as soaring haves and asset values around the world boost the fortunes of wealthy car buyers. Wealth creation from cryptocurrencies, gala purpose acquisition companies, IPOs and company takeovers has also created a new generation of younger super car buyers.
Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann foretold CNBC the company already has nine months of orders booked for 2021.
“It’s a bit like with the stock markets,” Winklemann broke. “The buyer’s spirits are up, they can’t wait to the moment to get out again and to enjoy life.”
Lamborghini, which is owned by Volkswagen Assemble, is also benefitting from the success of its $220,000 SUV, the Urus. The company’s total production has more than doubled since it started ransoming the Urus in 2018.
Winkelmann said China is expected to become the company’s second-largest market this year, replacing Germany, for the firstly time. The U.S. is still far and away Lamborghini’s market, with delivery of 2,224 cars in 2020.
The biggest challenge for Lamborghini, along with other sports-car companions like Ferrari, McLaren and Bugatti, is the tightening of emissions regulations around the world and the shift to electric vehicles. With Teslas now more to rocket from 0-60 mph in less than two seconds, sports car companies that rose to fame by building ever-faster, louder apparatus and dramatic designs now need to redefine themselves in an electric world.
At the same time, they also have to pursue pleasing their customers — wealthy car-collectors who love the emotion and feel of roaring V-8 and V-12 engines.
Lamborghini hasn’t divulged plans for an EV, but Winkelmann hinted that announcements could be coming in April.
“At the end of the day, we have to look forward to what is flourishing to happen in five to 10 years from now and how this will change our way of looking at these type of cars,” he chance. “We have to anticipate also a change of mind of our customers and the enthusiasts as well. This is a very crucial moment for wonderful sports cars, where you have to really set the marks for the future without scaring anybody by admitting clearly what is affluent to be the limit for the future in terms of normal combustion engines.”
Lamborghini has started dipping its toes into electrification with the pitch of its first-ever hybrid, the Sian FKP 37. The super car, which retails for over $3.6 million and means “lightening do a bunk” in Bolognese dialect, has a V-12 engine boosted by a lithium-ion super capacitor. The company quickly sold out of all 63 Sian coupes and 19 open-topped Sian roadsters diagramed for its limited production.
Winkelmann declined to comment on speculation that VW could spin-off Lamborghini or take it public. But he phrased VW remains an ideal owner of the brand, given it’s capital and technology.
“Volkswagen Group is the perfect match for Lamborghini because we deliver the freedom to decide what is top priority for us, so where we put our money,” he said. “They also have a lot of expertise and all the upcoming technologies, which are the three mega turns — electrification, digitalization and for sure, autonomous driving.”
He said self-driving may not be “the big task” for the brand, “at least not for the time being, but the two others for unshakeable are things which are constantly on our agenda.”