Lamborghini Waiting To See If Synthetic Fuel Has A Future Before Retiring ICE Supercars

The company boss argues the combustion engine could survive if e-fuel production ramps up.

2024 Lamborghini Revuelto Exterior

Adrian Padeanu

By: Adrian Padeanu

Oct 27, 2023 at 4:39am ET

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Lamborghini took its first shy attempt toward electrification in 2014 with the Asterion hybrid concept but it wasn't until earlier this year when its first production PHEV arrived. The V12-powered Revuelto will be followed next year by the Huracan replacement and an updated Urus – both with a combustion engine and a charging port. The purely electric Lanzador will be out in 2028, with a second-generation Urus due a year later strictly as an EV.

As to what will happen to the pair of supercars, Lamborghini has yet to decide whether their combustion engines are going to live into the 2030s. Speaking with Autocar, Chairman and CEO Stephan Winkelmann said the Italian exotic marque can wait a few more years to see whether synthetic fuels can save the ICE or not. However, there are some major uncertainties since it's unclear whether regulators will accept e-fuels globally and if production can be ramped up to meet demand.

2024 Lamborghini Revuelto First Drive

2024 Lamborghini Revuelto Exterior

The 59-year-old executive said it "would be an easier leap for us" to keep the internal combustion engine alive and make it run on synthetic fuels rather than installing electric motors and a battery pack. He believes there will come a time when performance-oriented EVs will be more agile than equivalent ICE models by taking advantage of improved battery energy density. That would make the battery packs smaller and therefore less heavy.

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Although the second-gen Urus and the production-ready Lanzador will be sold strictly as EVs, Lamborghini is in no rush to phase out the combustion engine in its sports cars. Winkelmann argued that on a global scale, it makes more sense in terms of lowering emissions to focus on e-fuel scalability since he believes there'll will still be billions of ICE cars on the road in 2035.

The head honcho admitted Lamborghini won't be first to come out with an electric supercar. When the time comes to roll out a high-performance EV, Winkelmann said it’ll be the best one on the market. That won't happen anytime soon as the Revuelto and Huracan successor are going to have a life cycle of eight or nine years, he added. It means both are expected to stick around until 2030 or 2031.

The Lamborghini Of EVs Is Coming:

Lamborghini Design Boss Says Lanzador EV Was Always Going To Have Two Doors

Lamborghini Lanzador EV Concept Debuts With 1,341 HP, Previews First Electric Bull

Source: Autocar

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