When Ferruccio Lamborghini founded his car company in 1963, he didn’t start with the outlandish supercars we know as Lambos today, complete with vertically hinged doors and flame-spitting V12 engines.
Instead, the tractor builder and former Italian Royal Air Force mechanic came up with the 350GTV concept, followed by the production-ready 350 GT. Designed by Carrozzeria Touring of Milan, the 350 GT was a coupe-bodied grand tourer with two seats and enough storage for a weekend away. Instead of going after his Italian neighbor on the racetrack, upstart Lamborghini had built a comfortable highway cruiser.
Fast-forward 60 years and Lamborghini is returning to where it started with the Lanzador, an electric grand tourer revealed this week in Monterey, California. This is the very first look at Lamborghini’s all-electric future, and just as with the 350GTV concept six decades earlier, it offers more than a hint of what’s to come.
Described as an “Ultra GT”—because automotive marketing departments have long since dismissed “super” as inadequate—the Lanzador echos its 350GTV grandfather in so much as it’s a practical grand tourer designed for daily duties and long journeys. Not peacocking along Rodeo Drive and scaring its owner at the occasional track day.
Unlike the 350, the Lanzador has extra ground clearance and a 2+2 seating configuration. It isn’t a full-size SUV like the Lamborghini Urus, but nor is it an asphalt-hugging supercar like the Huracan or hybrid Revuelto. As on so many of today’s electric cars, its floor-mounted battery pack pushes the design upward, turning a low-slung piece of exotica into something inherently more practical but equally striking.
Space Racer
Photograph: Lamborghini
The Lanzador’s design is “inspired by spaceships,” its manufacture says, with the authenticity only Lamborghini can summon without blushing. The exterior is angular and muscular, and seems to lean forward as if gearing up for reentry into Earth’s atmosphere. The massive 23-inch wheels of the concept, designed to reduce turbulence and increase range, further reinforce Lamborghini’s cartoonish house style.
Shown to WIRED during an event at Monterey Car Week hosted by Lamborghini, the concept is said to draw design inspiration from the Sesto Elemento, Murciélago and Countach LPI 800-4, while at 59 inches (150 cm) tall it is around 6 inches shorter than the Urus SUV and has an extremely shallow glasshouse.
Photograph: Lamborghini
Photograph: Lamborghini
The Lanzador employs active aerodynamics to help with stability or efficiency, depending on how the owner wishes to drive. Borrowing technology first seen boosting downforce for the Huracan Performance and Aventador SVJ, the so-called Aerodinamica Lamborghini Attiva system is newly equipped with aero devices designed to improve the Lanzador’s efficiency and range when using the frugal Urban drive mode. ALA then flicks to downforce duties when Performance mode is selected via a switch on the steering wheel.
Fast Forward
Photograph: Lamborghini
Below the sharp-suited body is a dual-motor drivetrain with permanent all-wheel-drive and a peak power output of over 1 megawatt—equal to 1,341 horsepower—making this the most powerful Lamborghini ever, and by a considerable margin.
The dual-motor system offers electric torque vectoring across the rear axle for what the company describes as “particularly dynamic cornering behavior.” In other words, a rear power bias with the option to shuffle torque between the rear wheels means it will surely drift out of corners under hard acceleration.
More practical concerns like battery capacity, voltage, and range are still under wraps, since this is a concept of a car not due on sale for several years. Lamborghini says its first mass-produced EV will arrive in 2028.
The Lanzador is apparently fueled by a “new-generation high-performance battery” that “ensures a long range,” but exact numbers from Lamborghini are not forthcoming. “For us, electrification does not mean a restriction but an opportunity to develop more performance and drivability,” says chief technical officer Rouen Mohr.
Driving pleasure will be fundamental to the success of future EVs from supercar makers like Lamborghini and its neighbor Ferrari, in Maranello. Both face the challenge of delivering excitement without the roar and drama of an engine. But this also presents manufacturers with the opportunity to try something new.
Driving Dynamics
Photograph: Lamborghini
For the Lanzador, this means the Lamborghini Dynamic Veicolo Integrata, or LDVI, a driving dynamics control system. The company says how “considerably more sensors and actuators will be integrated into the LDVI in the future to create even finer and more precise driving behavior, with innovation in the hardware, and also the control algorithm that manages the components.” What this sensor overload actually means in reality, however, is remarkably unclear. Still, in a bid to excite driving enthusiasts concerned about what an electric supercar will feel like, Lamborghini adds, “The more sensors and data fed to the control system, the more refined the algorithm is in delivering the nuances of driving sensations and feedback.”
Inside, the Lanzador manages to dodge most of the usual concept car clichés. The steering wheel doesn’t fold away into the dashboard, there are no holograms, and no autonomous camera drones uploading selfies to Instagram. It’s an interior that looks fresh and modern, but which makes the Lanzador seem believable; not some far-off concept destined only for teenage bedroom walls.
The 2+2 layout means there are two small seats behind the driver and front-row passenger, and behind the second row is a generous storage area Lamborghini says is suitable for “carrying all sorts of sports equipment or luggage.” Indeed, the concept is presented with a set of tailored bags, naturally, and if this space makes it to production we can see the Lanzador being somewhat practical … at least for a Lamborghini. There’s also a frunk, owing to the lack of engine under the nose, and the large glass tailgate opens wide for easy access, echoing that of the 1970s Lamborghini Espada.
No 2023 concept car would be complete without a range of recycled and sustainable materials. For the Lanzador, Lamborghini uses leather tanned with water sourced from olive oil production, along with renewable Merino wool, “regenerated carbon” made with bio-based resin, synthetic yarn made partially of plastic recovered from the ocean, and 3D-printed foam used in the seats and made from recycled plastic bottles, among other waste.
The Lanzador is not an electric supercar from the same bloodline as icons like the Miura, Countach, and Aventador. That will come later. For now it is a demonstration of how an electric platform gives car manufacturers and their designers an opportunity to create something new—a fourth vehicle model for Lamborghini, in this case.
It therefore neatly sidesteps the sticky topic of what a Lamborghini supercar will look, drive, and sound like when internal combustion is outlawed—and for now it may lure in new customers who aren’t looking for a flame-spitting street racer in the first place.
