Over two years ago at Monterey Car Week, Lamborghini joined a number of its peers in the automotive world by announcing an upcoming electric vehicle: the Lanzador, which was then just a concept car. At the time, the Italian automaker gave itself plenty of time to ready a production version, with a target date initially announced for 2028, and later pushed back to 2029. Now, Lamborghini has scrapped the Lanzador entirely, and nixed all plans to build an electric vehicle.
That’s the biggest takeaway from a conversation that Iain Macauley of The Sunday Times had with Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann. Winkelmann’s argument is, essentially, that EVs can’t offer prospective Lamborghini owners the feeling they’re looking for, telling Macauley that the company found that their customers sought a certain “emotional experience.”
“EVs, in their current form, struggle to deliver this specific emotional connection,” he explained, in reference to the sounds and physical sensations offered by internal combustion engines. And so, the Lanzador is off the release calendar; it’s set to be replaced by an as-yet-unnamed plug-in hybrid electric vehicle. According to what Winkelmann told The Sunday Times, Lamborghini made the decision to nix the Lanzador in late 2025.
Is There Still Room for Lucid?
The EV pioneer broke new ground and attracted discerning drivers in the process. What happens when the rest of the auto industry catches up?
It’s a strange time for electric vehicles. At The Verge, Lawrence Ulrich recently provided a detailed analysis of the EV-related woes at global automotive conglomerate Stellantis, which owns brands like Dodge, Jeep and Ram, writing that “[d]emand for EVs has gone glacial.” (At least in the U.S. market, which is the focus of his piece.) But much of that relates to the current presidential administration, which has done away with a number of EV-friendly policies.
The issues Lamborghini faces are more specific to, well, the segment of car buyers who are in the market for a Lamborghini. There are certain intangible factors at play there that defy larger global trends. Alternately, consider Lamborghini’s decision to axe its first electric offering and compare it to the approach Ferrari has taken with its first production EV, which is taking a unique approach in the market by hiring celebrated designers Sir Jony Ive and Marc Newson to create something singular.
It will be years before we can say if the latter company’s strategy was effective, but stay tuned for the final Ferrari Luce reveal in May to see if Lamborghini starts to reconsider its decision.
Meet your guide
Tobias Carroll
Tobias Carroll lives and writes in New York City, and has been covering a wide variety of subjects — including (but not limited to) books, soccer and drinks — for many years. His writing has been published by the likes of the Los Angeles Times, Pitchfork, Literary Hub, Vulture, Punch, the New York Times and Men’s Journal.
At InsideHook, he has…
More Like This
This article appeared in an InsideHook newsletter. Sign up for free to get more on travel, wellness, style, drinking, and culture.
