EVs are said to be zero emissions vehicles – never mind that it’s a deliberate misrepresentation to say that, because EVs do not pop into existence from the void, like zero point energy. Nor does the energy – the electricity – they consume. It isn’t generated without “emissions.”
These are just “emitted” elsewhere.
But there is one way EVs are “close to zero” – in the words of Lamborghini’s CEO Stephan Winkelmann. He refers here to buyer interest in these devices. He says the “acceptance curve” is “flattening” and for this reason, the company has decided to preemptively pull the plug on the Lanzador, whatever that means. The Lanzador (maybe it means disappointment in Italian) would have been the Italian supercar company’s first entirely battery powered device – and for that reason, a “Lamborghini” in the same general way that a Cygnet was an “Aston Martin.
Only even less so.
The Cygnet – for those not hip – was a rebadged Toyota/Scion iQ “city car.” It had a 1.3 liter four cylinder engine and 98 horsepower, giving it a heroic top speed of 106 MPH. Its base price was very Lambo-like, however.
About $50k to start.
Sales were . . . close to zero. As it turns out, there is a hard-deck limit to what people (especially people with money) are willing to pay for – and a badge isn’t enough to make them willing.
It turns out the people who Lambo money for a vehicle expect more than a device. They expect to have an “emotional experience,” as Winkelmann puts. Such an experience is not possible in a device because there is very little to experience – other than a strangely unemotional burst of acceleration. Have you ever ridden one of those electric tram rail things they have at some of the major airports? They get you from one terminal to another very quickly but does anyone feel anything – other than meh – about the experience? Electric vehicles offer a similar experience. Some can take you from a dead stop to 60 MPH in less than 3 seconds. But a Lamborghini with an engine that takes five (the Countach, for instance) makes you feel something you will never forget.
Winkelmann gets it.
“I’ve driven some really fantastic EVs in my time, and I’ll fully admit that it’s almost impossible to replicate the feeling of a great gas engine in an electric car. . . EVs, in their current form, struggle to deliver this specific emotional connection.”
Italics added.
What form could they take that will ever deliver “this specific emotional connection”? It is hard to imagine, unless there’s an engine involved – which is exactly what Lambo has in mind.
At least, partially.
It is focusing on hybrid-augmented supercars. These are styled Partial Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV)s as a kind of deferential nod to “electrification” without actually “electrifying” the vehicles. The hybrid augmentation, which generally consists of an EV-like (but smaller) battery pack that is used to power the vehicle’s accessories and (in some cases) provide a degree of additional propulsive force is a kind of hairshirt that must be worn by vehicles with engines, to enable their manufacturers to remain compliant with regs designed to strangle engines out of existence.
Even though Trump has temporarily abated the worst of these regs in the United States, in Europe these regs remain severe and must be complied with by any brand that wishes to sell vehicles in Europe. That is why Lambo – primarily a European brand – is effectively compelled to “partially electrify” its vehicles, never mind that the people who buy Lambos obviously don’t give a rip about such things as gas mileage or the “emissions” of carbon dioxide. At least not enough to be willing to pay twice six figures for a device such as the strangled-in-its-crib Lanzador.
Why else would Lambo (and so many other high-end vehicle manufacturers) turn their exotic, luxury-performance vehicles into basically high-priced, high-performance Priuses?
The Prius – when it was introduced way back in 1997 – was a hybrid because the idea was to increase gas mileage for the sake of increasing gas mileage. This is a perfectly reasonable idea when you’re designing an economy car that is fundamentally about saving money. No one in the market for a Lambo – or a Lexus or a Mercedes, et al – buys such vehicles because they are trying to save money. Or gas. 
The reason why half or more of new vehicles of all types are hybridized to one degree or another is because compliance. Put another way, the vehicle manufacturers are – effectively – being forced to turn every type of vehicle (just about) into a kind of Prius, because compliance. This has added thousands to the price of such vehicles because battery packs and electric motors and 48 volt electrical systems and alternator/belt-start systems cost money and there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. 
It has also turned vehicles such as Lambos that were once pointedly focused on performance exclusively into bastardized things that are the product of mutually exclusive design criteria: Pleasing the buyer and placating the government.
The Lanzador is a thing that would never have prototyped even had it not been for the need to placate the government. But the same need is why so many other Lambos are now high-priced Priuses, too.
. . .
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“Stephan Winkelmann“
Well, he certainly sounds like a legitimate Italian.
Yesterday day?
Pfft.
Given that Lamborghini is a niche luxury supercar manufacturer with limited annual production, its vehicles constitute a negligible percentage of all cars on the road worldwide—likely well under 0.01%.
There is absolutely no reason to force exotic vehicles with such a small percentage of all cars on the road at any given time to be compliant with emissions. It’s only another example of heavy handed government doing meaningless things to people because they can. I think, as a car guy, if I personally knew anyone in the government regulatory game, I would find myself hard pressed not to assault them.
I’ve had the chance to drive a McLaren Artura and a Lamborghini Temerario, which are two of these hybrid supercars that the Lambo boss is describing.
They are beautiful cars that ruin other cars for you in terms of handling and performance, but the hybrid system makes them feel less mechanical. The car’s computer is always blending the electric power with the gasoline engine, and neither is really directly connected to your gas pedal, so you have these situations where the gas engine just turns off as you’re slowing down, or your initial surge of acceleration is electric and then the gas engine kicks in. In the Artura, like other McLarens, there is turbo lag, but it’s completely hidden with the hybrid system. This blending of power isn’t perfect, so you get these subtle, but noticeable surges and dips in both power and braking. These cars make all the right noises, and the numbers on paper are incredible, but the hybrid behavior is disconcerting to this car nut.
Would I turn down a hybrid supercar? Nope, they’re amazing. However, their predecessors, which are much simpler, are more appealing to my old car guy sensibilities. If I could afford one of these, I’d be buying previous generation non-hybrid.
I coach lots of drivers at HPDE events to show them how to drive their machines, so I’ve been lucky enough to drive lots of the old-school predecessors; 720S, Huracan, F458, F488. They often ask me to do a few demo laps in their car so they can see what it does in experienced hands. It’s a nice gig if you can get it, haha.
Very interesting comment! I’ve always wondered how the new hybrid supercars compare to the older mechanical supercars.
Having driven all those cars, which car would you consider ‘best?’ Did you like the 458 better than the 488? How about any Porsches?
Personally, I can’t even get used to paddle shifters!
If I were buying a Ferrari, it would come down to 3. One of them has a stick shift, the last stick shift Ferrari, and that would be the F430. Its two successors, the F458 and F488 get the DSG with paddles, so their shifts are instantaneous and they’re much better on the track than the stick shift. The 458 is a mechanical symphony of natural aspirated, high revving V8. The 488 is more powerful, much more linear torque curve, and faster, but it doesn’t have that glorious noise. Both are really reliable.
I have never driven a high end Porsche on the track, only Boxsters and Caymans, which are great! Porsche dudes aren’t friendly like F-car or Lambo or McLaren owners. Yes, that’s a broad stereotype, but I stand by it.
As someone who has driven stick shifts for the last 35 years, the paddles also confuse me. I just leave those cars in full automatic mode, and they shift properly on the track. If I had such a car, I’m sure I’d pick it up in no time, but when focusing on going fast, I don’t like things distracting me, and at this point in my life, I can shift a manual transmission without even thinking about it. I have to think about using a paddle.
Awesome, thanks for replying! The 430 is indeed a beautiful car. The 458’s engine sound gives me chills and it’s also a work of art, in its own right.
Hilarious about Porsche owners, but yeah, I can definitely see where you’re coming from.
BTW, lanza is italian for lance…lanzador is not an italian word.
Kinda like Silverado and Ciera aren’t really Spanish words.
Hi Eric, et al,
“Even though Trump has temporarily abated the worst of these regs in the United States, in Europe these regs remain severe and must be complied with by any brand that wishes to sell vehicles in Europe. ”
In a nutshell, you hit the target here on why Europe has entered third world shithole territory. The EU, and of course, NATO have destroyed the once brilliant separate cultures of Europe and replaced them with a dull drabness trending towards Oceania from Orwell’s 1984. The good news is that if we survive the coming conflagration on behalf of Israel, the EU, NATO and hell maybe even the U.S. government might just be toast.
I think Lanzador is not accurately translated as “disappointment” but I’m pretty sure it is used in lots of ads for little blue pills.
The broken clock of China is right once a day with the way they make EVs: Small, cheap, slow moving shoe boxes for city commuting.
But here in the Land Of The Free, we cannot have said small, cheap, slow shoe box EVs, because they aren’t compliant, I mean, safe.
So which one is it? Cars that are green or cars that are safe? You can’t have both.
Enshitification has reached every price point.
Parsons, the military contractor entrusted to inspect vehicles for New Jersey, has the depressing slogan, “Approaching Zero”. I guess that means the age of cars on the road will approach zero.
Parsons no longer has to comply with DEI nonsense, so they have been employing responsible white men lately. Most of the zombie vehicle abusers that used to work there are gone.
Calcium chloride and vehicular initial quality enshitification are making some people rich.
Remember fake boobs? From the 1970s until the early 2000s, fake boobs were all over the mainstream media. Pr0n stars (so I’m told) would get cartoonishly large implants that made their chests look like the Macy’s Thanksgiving day parade. Most men weren’t all that interested in fake boobs, and any woman who wasn’t in competition for acting jobs was probably comfortable enough in her own skin to not need such nonsense. Yet for about 40 years the mainstream ideal of beauty included fake boobs.
Until they started leaking.
After getting a timeline from ChatGPT, apparently there’s more silicone in women today than there was in the 1990s, but instead of it being Pam Anderson ‘uge they’re a little more normal looking. And the tech has improved too so they’re somewhat safer.
I was going to compare/contrast EVs with boob jobs, but instead I think this sounds more like if the technology were allowed to play out we’ll see and end to the one-size-fits-all EV, moving instead to more purposeful builds. Small Polaris-type EVs for getting around the neighborhood or an alternative if you’ve got property and installed solar. Compact hybrids for commuting and longer grocery runs. Larger ICE vehicles for road trips and entertainment. But that would mean a reform for automobile licensing, insurance and even things like HOAs allowing vehicles in driveways. And letting cheap EVs into the country, which ain’t gonna happen.
“Close to Zero” Security
Why connected cars are an absolutely terrible idea:
‘A software engineer’s earnest effort to steer his new DJI robot vacuum with a video game controller inadvertently granted him a sneak peak into thousands of people’s homes.
‘While building his own remote-control app, Sammy Azdoufal reportedly used an AI coding assistant to help reverse-engineer how the robot communicated with DJI’s remote cloud servers. But he soon discovered that the same credentials that allowed him to see and control his own device also provided access to live camera feeds, microphone audio, maps, and status data from nearly 7,000 other vacuums across 24 countries. The backend security bug effectively exposed an army of internet-connected robots that, in the wrong hands, could have turned into surveillance tools, all without their owners ever knowing.
‘Luckily, Azdoufal chose not to exploit that. Instead, he shared his findings with The Verge, which quickly contacted DJI to report the flaw. While DJI tells Popular Science the issue has been “resolved,” the dramatic episode underscores warnings that internet-connected robots and other smart home devices present attractive targets for hackers.’
https://www.popsci.com/technology/robot-vacuum-army/
These gross security breaches already are happening with telematics-equipped cars, Ring doorbells, ‘smart’ appliances and phones, and Tesla humanoid robots.
‘The Lo-Teks are a subculture of tribe-like people who live in hideouts suspended by cables in the Sprawl’s geodesic domes. They are, as their name infers, a low-tech society, and the only tech they have are the synthesizers and amplifiers on the Killing Floor. Lo-Teks are identifiable by their tattoos all over their bodies, and their maw like mouths, which have been surgically changed to resemble the maw and tongue of a dog. The only Lo-Tek identified by name is Dog.’ — William Gibson Wiki
I think all of these “smart home” connected devices are reporting directly to FedGov/Big Brother courtesy of Palantir aka the Eye of Sauron. The hacking is just incidental.
My thoughts exactly. The government probably requires these “backdoors” be built into these connected devices. They are scraping all data about us they can, to build a database on us for AI behavior mapping. They are silently building a prison around us. When the majority wakes up to it, it will be too late to do anything about it.
Why does every small town need it’s own datacenter? Hmmm. They have plans to build one here in my small rural Oklahoma town. The people tried to fight it, but the city council approved it anyway, because they were paid well.
We fought it here in our town in western Wisconsin. It was supposed to go to a vote but it got so bad the mayor actually came out and said “yeah, fine. Don’t worry about the vote, it’s not gonna happen. “
I remember reading a few years back, of someone’s air conditioner shutting off automatically one Summer (in California), because the smart conditioner and smart grid deemed that the person was using too much energy, and decided to “help” them. Whoops, sorry we shut your heater off at -40 below and you froze to death: It was for the Earth, after all.
“Flatten the curve”. Where have we heard that before? Much like the last time, this will be a flop. And on a side note can you imagine paying that much for such an ugly vehicle?
Probably it’s not a coincidence that two of the worst ideas in human history — mRNA shots and a total EeeVee transition — were birthed about the same time.
Most of the ‘early adopters’ of mRNA shots — ‘Biden’, Fauci, Weeping Walensky, etc — already are consigned to history’s dustbin.
In the EeeVee field, though, blockheads such as Lightning Jim Farley and Gov, Gavin Newsom still abound. WHY, after EeeVees have lost $114 billion or so?
Young Gavin was just out pandering to some black folks, telling them that ‘I can’t read’ and ‘I’m a 960 SAT guy.’ DUH, who would have guessed? I’d like to meet his hairdresser! 🙂
“‘Biden’, Fauci, Weeping Walensky, etc — already are consigned to history’s dustbin.”
Though I hear they are doing very well.
‘Winkelmann says the “acceptance curve” is “flattening.”‘ — eric
But … but … is this not what we were implored to do, during the late, great pandemic?
‘”Flatten the curve” was the defining public health mantra of the early COVID-19 pandemic, urging collective action to slow the spread of the virus to avoid overwhelming healthcare systems.
‘Purpose: The phrase referred to a graph comparing a “steep mountain” of rapid infections against a “gentler hill” of cases spread over a longer time.’ — AI Overview
Well, we flattened the curve alright — the acceptance curve which once ended at 100% all-electric by 2035. Promises made, promises kept! 🙂
Hi Jim,
During COVID, we “flattened the curve” all right; we flattened the economy but large corporations got tons of money while small businesses were forced to close their doors, many of them permanently. We were made to believe it was a matter of “Protecting Public health”, and that the dreaded ‘Rona only existed in small businesses but large corporations were saaaaaaaaaafe to shop in. 6 years later, people who STILL belieeeeeeeeeeve these draconian COVID measures were about Protecting Public Health are likely propagandized to the point they also think corporate media reports news & that putting Democrats back in power will magically fix everything.
ZeroHedge: “Winkelmann said the Lanzador will be replaced by a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle. He added that the Italian carmaker will produce internal combustion engines “for as long as possible.”
I find it surprising that the extremely wealthy aren’t interested in buying an EV sports car; save the planet don’t you know. But forcing this EV sh*t onto us is OK? /s
At least the Aston Martin Cygnet probably wasn’t a hybrid.
Cygnet: A young swan. Was it called that because Dead Duck doesn’t roll off your tongue?