Forget the fully electric Lanzador. Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann confirmed at Monterey Car Week this week that the Lamborghini Lanzador PHEV is what’s actually coming — and the brand’s customers are glad about it.
“We decided to change the Lanzador from full electric to plug-in hybrid, and this was very well accepted by the customer,” Winkelmann said. “They’re very happy about that.”
The Lanzador concept first appeared at Monterey Car Week in 2023 — bold, polarizing, built entirely around an electric powertrain with no combustion engine anywhere in the picture. First Lamborghini to try that. A two-door four-seat grand tourer running on electricity alone sounded exciting on paper. Customers apparently needed three years to make clear how they felt about it in practice. The Lamborghini Lanzador PHEV is the answer to that feedback.
Winkelmann Has Been Saying This for a While
The Lamborghini Lanzador PHEV switch didn’t happen overnight. Winkelmann has been signaling the direction for months. Earlier this year he described switching away from full electric as the “right way to go” — and his language around EV interest at Lamborghini has been consistently blunt in a way most luxury car executives avoid.
Customer interest in a fully electric Lamborghini is “close to zero” according to Winkelmann’s own words. He’s called EVs an “expensive hobby” — a remarkably direct statement from the head of a brand that sells cars starting above $200,000. Most automakers at that price point carefully avoid saying anything that might alienate buyers who want electric options. Winkelmann apparently decided honesty served Lamborghini better.
The Lanzador isn’t the only model affected by this thinking. The second-generation Urus won’t be going fully electric either. Like the Lamborghini Lanzador PHEV, it will be a plug-in hybrid. The current Urus SE already runs a PHEV setup, so the next generation continuing that direction makes sense both technically and commercially.
Two Lamborghinis switching away from full electric in the same period says something specific about where the brand thinks its buyers actually stand on this question.
What the Lamborghini Lanzador PHEV Powertrain Might Look Like
Nobody at Lamborghini is talking specific numbers for the Lanzador powertrain yet. But the most likely direction points toward a variation of the existing PHEV technology already running in the Urus SE Performante — a 4.0-liter twin-turbocharged V8 paired with an electric motor producing 800 horsepower and 738 pound-feet of torque combined.
Fitting that setup into the Lanzador isn’t straightforward. The car was originally conceived and engineered as a pure electric vehicle — battery pack placement, structural design, weight distribution, packaging — all of it planned around an EV architecture with no combustion engine. The Lanzador’s original bones were laid out around a pure EV — battery placement, structure, weight distribution, all of it planned without a combustion engine anywhere in the picture. Dropping a hybrid V8 into that requires more than an engineering afternoon. The few years before production starts are going to be busy ones for whoever has that job.
Whether the Lamborghini Lanzador PHEV ends up using the V8 from the Urus SE Performante or an entirely different setup — perhaps a V10-based hybrid given the grand tourer positioning — remains to be confirmed.
Why Lamborghini Buyers Rejected the Full EV Direction
The reaction to the Lamborghini Lanzador PHEV switch reveals something specific about who buys these cars and what they want from them. Lamborghini customers spend serious money to own vehicles with a particular character — exhaust sound, throttle response, the mechanical drama that comes from a combustion engine working hard. A silent electric powertrain, however fast, delivers a fundamentally different experience.
Ferrari has been similarly cautious about full electrification at its core product level, keeping hybrid systems that preserve combustion character rather than replacing it. Porsche’s Taycan shows that a luxury electric sports car can succeed commercially — but Porsche built the Taycan as an addition to the lineup rather than a replacement for the 911.
Lamborghini tried something different with the original Lanzador concept — a clean-break EV that stood apart from everything else in the range. The customer response made clear that clean break wasn’t what buyers were looking for. The Lamborghini Lanzador PHEV gives them what they actually want — electrification that adds performance capability without removing the combustion experience they’re paying for.
Lamborghini Lanzador PHEV — What’s Confirmed and What Isn’t
| Detail | Status |
|---|---|
| Original concept | Full electric, revealed Monterey Car Week 2023 |
| Current direction | Plug-in hybrid confirmed |
| CEO statement | “Very well accepted by the customer” |
| Expected powertrain | Variation of existing PHEV technology — unconfirmed |
| Likely engine | 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 with electric motor — unconfirmed |
| Urus SE Performante output | 800 hp, 738 lb-ft for reference |
| Production timeline | Several years away |
| Packaging challenge | Original EV architecture needs reworking for PHEV |
| Second-gen Urus | Also switching from full EV to PHEV |
Frequently Asked Questions About the Lamborghini Lanzador PHEV
Why did Lamborghini switch the Lanzador from full electric to PHEV?
Customer feedback drove the decision. Winkelmann confirmed at Monterey Car Week that Lamborghini buyers responded very positively to the Lamborghini Lanzador PHEV switch. His previous statements make clear that interest in a fully electric Lamborghini among the brand’s customer base is extremely low — “close to zero” in his own words.
What powertrain will the Lamborghini Lanzador PHEV use?
Not confirmed yet. The Urus SE Performante pairs a 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 with an electric motor for 800 horsepower. That combination is the natural starting point for the Lamborghini Lanzador PHEV powertrain. What isn’t natural is packaging a combustion engine into a platform that was originally drawn up without one — battery in the floor, no space reserved for a V8, structure built around EV assumptions from the ground up.
When does the Lamborghini Lanzador PHEV go on sale?
The Lanzador won’t reach assembly lines for a few years still. The original concept appeared at Monterey Car Week in 2023 and the production version is expected later this decade.
Is the next Urus also going PHEV instead of full electric?
Yes. Winkelmann confirmed the second-generation Urus won’t be fully electric — it will follow the same plug-in hybrid direction as the current Urus SE. Both the Lanzador and next Urus are switching away from full electric.
What did Lamborghini’s CEO say about EV interest among customers?
Winkelmann called customer interest in a fully electric Lamborghini “close to zero” and described EVs as an “expensive hobby” — his words, not a paraphrase. At Monterey Car Week 2026 he added that the Lamborghini Lanzador PHEV switch landed well. Buyers are “very happy about that” according to Winkelmann directly.
How difficult is it to convert the Lanzador from EV to PHEV?
Genuinely challenging. The Lanzador’s original bones were laid out around a pure EV — battery placement, structure, weight distribution, all of it planned without a combustion engine anywhere in the picture. Dropping a hybrid V8 into that requires more than an engineering afternoon. The few years before production starts are going to be busy ones for whoever has that job.
Lamborghini spent three years watching customer reaction to the idea of a fully electric Lanzador. The reaction was apparently clear enough that Winkelmann felt comfortable making the switch publicly and describing buyer response as enthusiastic. The Lamborghini Lanzador PHEV won’t be the revolutionary clean-break electric vehicle the 2023 concept promised — but it will be something Lamborghini’s actual customers will pay for, which in the end is the only metric that matters for a car that costs what a Lamborghini costs.
Also Read: Why Is WD-40 Called WD-40? Three People in a Lab Failed 39 Times and Built a Billion Dollar Brand
