Lamborghini can’t hack the pace of EVs

Supercar companies are bullish types – literally in the case of the Raging Bull Lamborghini – and they would never admit to being frightened of electric vehicles, but it becomes pretty obvious when they say they’d prefer not to talk about how fast their cars are any more.

Lamborghini has always talked up two figures – its 0 to 100km/h times and its outrageous top speeds – but, apparently, at least one of these things is “not important any more”.

Francesco Scardaoni is Lamborghini’s Asia Pacific boss and before we were allowed to interview him, at this week’s launch of the very exciting looking Huracan STO, we were warned not to ask any questions about electrification. Not a good sign.

The fact that Lamborghini won’t be able to sell any of its giant-engined cars in the UK by 2030 would seem newsworthy, but instead we asked whether, considering the new STO – a Lambo race car for the road – can only hit 100km/h in 3.0 seconds, such a speed was really considered “super” any more.

“The main parameters of measuring performance on super sport cars has been changing over many years,” Scardaoni insisted.

“Ten years ago, we would say top speed, acceleration and handling, then top speed became a separate parameter, acceleration was the big one, but now, with the introduction of electrification, it’s not so important. 

“It’s quite easy for those kind of power units to have amazing results in terms of acceleration.”

The Porsche Taycan and promised (and late) Tesla Roadster are a case in point, as is Tesla’s (also promised, but not out yet) Model S Plaid+. Then there’s Audi’s RS e-Tron GT, among others.

There may have been just the tiniest bit of bitterness in Scardaoni’s voice at this point. But wait, no one cares about speed any more!

“What’s really making a difference now is the drivability of the car, the handling. If you have good acceleration but the car is heavy to steer, heavy to handle, you can’t have that pleasure from driving, from cornering the car, steering the car in a really fast way.

“So handling is now considered one of the top priorities, for a car manufacturers, especially for a manufacturer like Lamborghini, that’s a key parameter that we are designing around.

“Handling is the top, number-one priority for super sport cars.”

You might notice the subtle dig there about electric vehicles – many of which are now exploring 0 to 100km/h territory previously unimagined, like sub two seconds – being heavy. 

Eventually, Scardaoni admitted that Lamborghini, like Ferrari, is currently exploring “hybrid solutions, which, for us, can be a bridge into the future of electrification” but he would only say that “as of today, we don’t have an implementation date for full electric power”.

Lamborghini has already teased some hybrid tech with its Sian, and the replacement for the Aventador is expected to add electric motors to the V12.

It’s coming, though, you can bet on that, and when it does, Lamborghini’s revenge on all those electric-car companies currently making it look bad will be spectacular.