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NEWS
Lamborghini ramps up R&D
Supercar manufacturer is splurging big on future product developmentLamborghini’s Research and Development department may have spent more than €100 million last year as it raced to bring its all-new Huracan (picture) to market – and its spending rate is only increasing.
Lamborghini President, Stephan Winkelmann, made the extraordinary admission during last week’s technical preview of the Huracan. And the company has employed on average 100 new R&D staff each year for each of the last three years.
“Maurizio Reggiani’s department is consuming more than 20 per cent of our turnover in development and technical innovation,” Winkelmann said.
“Last year we hired 100 people for that department but in the last three years we have employed more than 300 engineers and designers,” he admitted.
“Lamborghini is more than breaking even. The official number will come out in the third week in March.”
Lamborghini has yet to announce its 2013 financial results, but it turned over €469 million in 2012 and sold 2121 cars last year, including more than 1001 Aventadors, marking the first time it has sold more than 1000 V12 models in any given year.
The research and development department, headed by Mr Reggiani, is riding high on the back of the Aventador, the Aventador Roadster and the upcoming Huracan.
It is also known to have earned the respect of the R&D board member of its parent company, Audi, with Dr Ulrich Hackenberg last week praising Lamborghini’s contributions to the MSS (Modular Sports car System) architecture.
“My job is to find synergies between the four brands [including Ducati and ItalDesign Giugiaro] as a key to keep moving together,” Dr Hackenberg said last week.
“Both Audi and Lamborghini have great expertise in light-weight construction and it offers benefits in performance, dynamics and the braking and consumption and efficiency.
“Lamborghini is a pioneer of carbon-fibre composites materials in research and development and in manufacturing.”
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Written byMichael Taylor
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