Lamborghini reveals electrification roadmap – first series production hybrid in 2023; EV by end of decade

With stricter emission standards on the horizon, many carmakers are leaning heavily into electrification to ensure their new products are compliant with regulations. Lamborghini is no exception to this shift, and recently presented its electrification roadmap for the current decade.

The Italian marque is calling its plan “Direzione Cor Tauri”, which translates to “Towards Cor Tauri,” with “Cor Tauri” being the brightest star in the Taurus constellation that is represented by a bull. The company’s founder, Ferruccio Lamborghini, was born on April 28, 1916, making him a Taurus. This, along with his passion for bullfighting, is why the bull is featured on the brand’s logo and why some of the cars are named as such.

History lesson aside, Lamborghini’s plan consists of three phases, starting with the celebration of the combustion engine until 2022. This one last hurrah will see two new cars without any form of electrification joining its V12 model line-up, both of which will be announced this year.

Getting into the more serious part of the plan, the real transition to electrification will begin in 2023 with the launch of the company’s first series production hybrid model, which is heavily rumoured to be a plug-in hybrid version of Urus.

Of course, hybrid tech is nothing new to the brand, as there was the Asterion from 2014, although that didn’t make it to full-scale production in favour of bringing the Urus to market. More recently, there’s the Sian with its supercapacitor, but that model is only offered in very limited numbers.

By the end of 2024, Lamborghini’s model range will be electrified, although it isn’t certain if the Huracan and Aventador, which made their debuts in 2014 and 2011 respectively, will be part of this line-up. In the presentation slides, we see silhouettes of what could be the replacements for both sports cars, although the company is remaining coy for now.

The internal target for this phase is to reduce product CO2 emissions by 50% by the beginning of 2025, which is when the Euro 7 standards are expected to come into force. Lamborghini says it will invest more than 1.5 billion euros – the largest amount in its history – over four years to drive this push.

Entering the second half of the decade, Lamborghini will introduce a fourth model to its range that will be fully electric. Once again, the company isn’t revealing whether its first electric vehicle will be a two-door sports car or something more practical (more doors), although the latter could be a possibility if we look at the covered vehicle in the slides and a report by Autocar.

Based on that silhouette, we are reminded of the Estoque concept that was presented 13 years ago in Paris, but that project was shelved to the economic climate at the time. This was when Stephan Winkelmann headed Lamborghini from 2005 to 2016, before heading off to Audi Sport for a short stint. He would then become CEO of Bugatti and take on a double role by returning to Lamborghini in 2020.

During his initial tenure at Lamborghini, Winkelmann oversaw the development of the Urus concept that debuted at the 2012 Beijing Auto Show, and that eventually became a series production model much later in 2017. With a return to the helm, the Estoque could finally make the transition from concept to production, although we’ll have to wait and see what the company has in store.

As Lamborghini is part of the Volkswagen Group alongside Audi and Porsche, the Italian company will have access to technologies to create its EV. Given the set timeframe, it is likely to use the upcoming Scalable Systems Platform (SSP), which combines elements from the Modular Electric Drive Matrix (MEB) and the Premium Platform Electric (PPE).

While products are a key part of the company’s sustainability strategy, other aspects of the business will also be touched by the green thumb. The Sant’Agata Bolognese site has already achieved CO2 neutral certification in 2015, which was maintained even after the production site was expanded in size. Other areas like offices, the supply chain and corporate social responsibility will also be changed to help reduce CO2 emissions as much as possible.