Lamborghini Will Present First Production EV At Monterey Car Week

In an article celebrating a rich history of one-offs and concept cars, Lamborghini has announced that its first 100% electric vehicle will be presented this month. The car will be shown in prototype form at Monterey Car Week as one of more than a dozen high-end reveals.

As if that's not exciting enough, a rumor from British publication Autocar predicts that it will take the form of the much-loved one-off Lamborghini Estoque concept presented at the 2008 Paris Motor Show. The four-door sedan was ultimately canned because of the impending financial crisis, but today's economic climate, as uncertain as it is, seems to have plenty of room for expensive machinery - Lamborghini's sales results from the first half of this year were, once again, record-breaking.

The announcement was made with typical Italian flair:

"Ever since its foundation in 1963, Automobili Lamborghini has made one-off models that signal the technical and stylistic direction the company will take in the immediate future. These are design or technical prototypes or experimentation with new concepts to help develop the Lamborghinis to come. In the 1960s, these one-offs were very often show cars bound for motor show parades. In more recent years, the designation changed from "one-off" to category created specially by Lamborghini: "few-offs," essentially a limited run of cars for the most loyal customers that pre-empt or enhance the most advanced technical solutions that will be used on production cars in later years. The same formula will be repeated in just a few days at Monterey Car Week in California, where Automobili Lamborghini will present the prototype of its first 100% electric car."

So that tells us a few things.

For a start, the Lambo EV will not be sold with as much proliferation as the Lamborghini Urus; this will be a limited edition and, therefore, a very rare car indeed. Moreover, the car we'll see at Monterey may not look 100% production-ready.

The article we referenced at the outset concludes by saying that the fully electric Lamborghini "is due to enter production by the end of the decade." Following advances made in electrification with the Sian, Lamborghini will first turn to mainstream hybridization of the Urus and the Huracan successor, following in the footsteps of the thousand-horsepower Revuelto.

At this point, you're probably wondering why we mentioned the Estoque early on. Well, that's thanks to an as-yet unsubstantiated report from Autocar.

The British publication says the 2+2 "is expected to draw light inspiration from the Lamborghini Estoque." Unfortunately, the report also claims that the EV could be a crossover of some sort. Autocar says this will be to accommodate a floor-mounted battery pack, but as the Rimac Nevera has shown, there are other packaging possibilities.

At this point, there is no express confirmation that it will be a crossover, only a statement from CEO Stephan Winkelmann that it will "be more daily useable" and that it will be a "two-door car with more ground clearance." However, since that report, Winkelmann told Autocar that EV packaging requirements "open up interesting avenues" for potential designs.

Whatever the final shape and layout, you can be certain that Lamborghini has thoroughly canvassed its customers to ensure they want what's coming. But why will it take so long to get here?

Because although buyers are open to electrification for family-style hyper-luxury vehicles, Winkelmann is aware that buyers are living in the here and now: "We must plan for what we know will work best today. There are definitions that I think no electric car in our sector has yet resolved sufficiently: not just acceleration and handing behavior but also responsiveness, braking feel, and multiple acceleration protocols. These are unproven in high-performance EVs and things we must spend the next years working out."

So the Lambo EV will arrive near the end of the decade once Sant'Agata has worked out how to make it handle, respond, and feel like a truly spectacular event. Until then, we'll be aiming our cameras at The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering from August 18, bringing you in-the-metal imagery of whatever Lamborghini is charging up.