Can Lambo survive electrification?

This is going to be the biggest challenge since the beginning of the company."

Lamborghini boss Stephan Winkelmann knows a thing or two about challenges. He was at Lambo in 2009 when the global financial crisis hit and sales of expensive supercars tanked. A few years later he had to convince the aficionados a Lamborghini SUV built using Porsche and Audi parts would be a good thing, and it wouldn't corrupt a brand famous for building some of the fastest, most extreme cars ever made.

So what now could be more of an existential threat to Lamborghini than either of those ructions? Winkelmann doesn't hesitate. "Electrification," he says, "and the acceptance of electrification. I strongly believe that what we have done in the past was evolutionary. Now it's really a cut and a new beginning."

Ironically, Lamborghini is in great shape, perhaps in the best shape, it's ever been. Sales are rapidly rebounding to record levels after the COVID-induced slump of the past two years. Thanks to years of investment by Volkswagen Group, the factory at Sant'Agata Bolognese is a state-of-the-art facility making cars that are better engineered, more reliable, and built to higher quality levels than any other Lamborghinis in the marque's history. There's money to spend on new products.