Lamborghini says that strong profits and record sales have allowed it to create the successor to the Huracan without having to partner with Audi to share the burden of development costs.
The Lamborghini Huracan, as well the Gallardo, were both developed and launched alongside two generations of the Audi R8. During a recent media event focused on the new Huracan Sterrato, the director of Lamborghini’s Asia-Pacific region Franceso Scardaoni said that the Huracan’s replacement will be underpinned by a unique platform free from Audi input.
“Since we’ve been so profitable, we got the green light to develop our own platform,” he confirmed to Drive. “From one side, being part of the [VW] Group and having a platform to share is really good because you can share technology, and use technology that is validated from other brands – it’s really a good approach. But of course, being able to design our own platform gives us even more freedom to create the platform that best fits the Lamborghini DNA without any compromise. The company is setting records, quarter over quarter, year over year in terms of financials so… we are able to invest a huge amount of money in terms of research and development and to design our own platforms.”
Read: Plug-In Hybrid Lamborghini Huracán Successor To Debut In 2024
Whereas Lamborghini will replace the Huracan with another combustion-powered supercar, the third-generation Audi R8 is expected to morph into an EV.
Technical specifications about the next mid-engined supercar from Lamborghini aren’t yet known but recent rumors suggest it will rock a twin-turbocharged V8 supplemented by a hybrid system. However, we are still holding out a little hope that the Italian marque will retain its iconic naturally-aspirated V10 as it has shown with the new Revuelto that a large-capacity engine free of turbochargers or a supercharger is still viable when paired with electric motors.
Scardaoni added that Lamborghini’s current plans are for the new model’s platform to be used exclusively by the firm but didn’t rule out the possibility of it being used by other VW Group brands in the future.
