Lamborghini sees no slowdown in China 'supercar' sales growth

Lamborghini is bullish on the Chinese market's growth potential, which might be expected, given that the Italian luxury carmaker achieved amazing results in China last year, despite the downturn of the automobile industry overall.

The company hit a new record last year, with total global sales jumping 51 percent year-on-year to 5,750 cars. China - Lamborghini's fifth largest market - saw an increase of 29 percent to 342 units in 2018.

Francesco Scardaoni, managing director of Automobili Lamborghini China, said in a recent interview early this month that one of the most important contributors to the company's growth is the Urus SUV model, which is well accepted around the world.

The world's first super SUV, Urus made its world premiere in late 2017, and began showing up in customers' garages last October. By the end of last year, 1,761 units of the model had been sold worldwide.

According to the company, all Urus model that will be rolled off the line this year have been sold in China and the orders keep increasing.

Scardaoni said that with the delivery of more Urus models in China, Lamborghini is looking to the future with optimism, even though China's automobile industry saw its first annual downturn in 28 years last year. He pointed out that the downturn hasn't affected sales in the super luxury sports vehicle and super SUV segment.

In addition to the SUV model, Chinese customers are waiting for the delivery of Lamborghini's super sports car series Huracan and Aventador. The Huracan Performante is expected to begin delivery next month.

"With the three complete product lines, Lamborghini is looking forward to better results in China this year," Scardaoni said.

As one of the world's top sports car manufacturers, Lamborghini will listen to customers and make efforts to meet their demands, Scardaoni said.

Lamborghini has found that its customers place a high value on interconnection technology and are interested in in-vehicle infotainment systems, especially as young people gradually become the main customers.

It's a great challenge to implement these features because they will increase the weight of the car body, which is not advantageous for a supercar.

The company has invested a lot of money to ensure the driving dynamics of the vehicle to meet the criteria of supercar, even when such features are added, according to Scardaoni.

The Urus adopts the Lamborghini Infotainment System, which controls the car setup, media, telephone and navigation via the two screens on the dashboard.

The interconnection of the Huracan and the Aventador is underway and will be achieved soon, according to the company.

In new energy sector, Lamborghini unveiled a concept vehicle called Terzo Millennio one year ago. It was co-developed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology to showcase the future of electric technology as foreseen by Lamborghini.

Instead of traditional lithium batteries, the model uses super capacitors, which can be rechargeable through the car body.

Scardaoni said the Terzo Millennio will not be mass produced, because the pure electric vehicle cannot meet Lamborghini's passion for supercar driving, at least not with present electric technology.

Early this month, Lamborghini invited Chinese car fans and customers to experience the passion of extreme driving by taking Urus, Aventador S and Huracan Performante for a spin in Zhuhai, Guangdong province.

"Lamborghini will create more extreme experiences for Chinese consumers on the basis of the brand DNA through products, services, distributor networks, brand experience stores and offline activities," Scardaoni said.