Lamborghini Beats Supply Chain Disaster for Record Sales Year So Far
Stephan Winkelmann must be an extremely happy clam right now.
Turns out, the Volkswagen Group knew what it was doing when it reportedly turned down an $11.5 billion offer to buy Lamborghini earlier in the year because, financially, the VW-owned supercar firm is on the up-and-up. Despite operating in a market still semi-recovering from a pandemic and the ongoing chip and supply chain fiasco, the Italian carmaker is on its way to another record sales year, mostly on the back of its unsurprisingly popular Urus SUV.
Over the first nine months of 2021, Lamborghini delivered 6,902 cars worldwide—more cars than it ever did over the same period in any previous year, beating 2019 (the final year unencumbered by COVID) by six percent. For what it's worth, Lambo is also on track to outsell its 2020 self by 23 percent. And it looks like the orders and the cash will keep rolling in for Lamborghini going forward as it reports "a strong order book" and "demand across the product portfolio."
On the subject of Lamborghini's product portfolio, almost 60 percent of all Lambos sold in 2021 so far were Uruses, with the 4,085 SUVs delivered representing a model-specific, year-over-year growth of 25 percent. The second-place Huracán's 2,136 sales, meanwhile, may look meager but still represented a 28 percent growth over last year, while the aging and expensive Aventador was "stable" at just 681 units sold.
While building a more practical Lambo—once an oxymoron—has done wonders for the company's bottom line, it aims to continue that momentum by moving into the equally paradoxical "environmentally responsible Lambo" game in the near future.
"Earlier this year we announced a robust roadmap towards future product electrification that starts with hybridization of the entire range in 2024 including the vision for a new fully-electric fourth model within the decade," said Lamborghini chairman and CEO Stephan Winkelmann. "In the meantime, we continue to celebrate the aspirated Lamborghini engine: deliveries started this summer of the motorsport-inspired Huracán STO while two limited edition V12s, the ‘last’ Aventador Ultimae and Countach LPI 800-4 announced this summer are already sold out, with a circa 12-month lead-time on our broader product range."
Good for Lambo.
Got a tip or question for the author about Lamborghini's financial health? You can reach him here: chris.tsui@thedrive.com.
