Amidst industry slowdown, Lamborghini expects to grow at 30 percent in 2019

While the automobile industry continues to feel the heat of a prolonged slowdown, Italian super-luxury carmaker expects to see its sales growing in excess of 30 percent during the current year. The company had earlier set a growth target of about 60 percent growth.

The company sold 45 units in 2018. With the 60 percent anticipated growth it should reach over 60 units, the company executives’ claim. The company had clocked 26 unit sales in 2017.

Sharad Agarwal, Head-Lamborghini India said, “We are anticipating to grow more than  30 percent over 2018”. Agarwal spoke on the sidelines of the launch of Huracan Evo Spyder in India, with prices starting from Rs 4.1 crore.

To be sure, the super-luxury market in India is very small with just 300 units sold every year.  Among the many reasons behind the low sales of such cars in the country is due to the high import taxes , as it considered to be an easy source of revenue generation for the government. The segment gets counted among the ‘sin goods’ category for this purpose.

According to the industry observers, the launch of Urus SUV last year by Lamborghini catapulted it to the leadership position in the super-luxury segment which is crowded with the global brands including Ferrari, Aston Martin, Rolls Royce, Bentley apart from premium products like BMW, Audi and Mercedes. Urus, which has been the growth driver for the company contributes more than 50 percent of the total sales.

Matteo Ortenzi, CEO of Asia Pacific at Lamborghini claims that Urus is strategically more important in India than in other markets as it is more suited to the Indian conditions.

Sharing lights on the customer demography, the company executives reveal that until 4-5 years ago the sales for Lamborghini mainly were confined primarily to metros. However, it has changed now significantly with about 25 percent sales coming from tier 1 and 2 cities.

Huracán EVO Spyder launch
Lamborghini on Thursday launched  Huracán EVO Spyder in India. The open-top car joins its coupé counterpart Huracán EVO launched earlier this year as the second model in the V10 Huracán EVO line-up. The company in a statement said that  Spyder adopts the next-generation vehicle dynamic control and aerodynamics developed for the coupé, with the 5.2 litres naturally-aspirated Lamborghini V10 engine uprated for higher power output and incorporating Titanium intake valves. The Huracán EVO Spyder outputs 640 hp (470 kW) at 8,000 rpm with 600 Nm of torque delivered at 6,500 rpm,  with a dry weight of 1,542 kg the car reaches a weight-to-power ratio of 2.41 kg/hp, accelerates from 0-100 km/h in 3.1 seconds and 0-200 km/h in 9.3 seconds. Braking from 100 km/h to 0 is achieved in just 32.2 m, with a top speed of 325 km/h.