Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. is on track to achieve a new sales record in South Korea this year on a growing appetite for a limited volume of super cars among deep-pocket Koreans, a company executive has said.
The Italian luxury sports car maker has reported double-digit sales growth in Asia's fourth-biggest economy over the past two years, with another double-digit growth expected this year.
"In the luxury segment where Lamborghini plays in Korea, so super sports car and SSUV (super SUV), we didn't see any recession. On the contrary, those two segments are growing in the Korean market," Francesco Scardaoni, regional director of Lamborghini's Asia-Pacific operations, said in a group interview with Korean reporters.
The interview was held after Lamborghini launched the brand's first plug-in hybrid model, "Revuelto," in the Korean market. The flagship Revuelto is replacing the V12 Aventador, with the delivery scheduled to begin next year.
"Our growth in a market is always controlled in order to have a constant development of the market. We never run for peaks. We like to bring all the markets in Lamborghini toward higher and higher performances," Scardaoni said.
"Also 2023, according to the order bank that we have here in Korea, we can foresee a new record year."
Renowned for its wild cars and powerful engines, Lamborghini has sold models under three combustion engine lineups in Korea: the V8 engine-powered Urus SUV, the V10 Huracan and the V12 Aventador.
Under its "hybridization" strategy, Lamborghini plans to replace most of its lineup with plug-in hybrid models by 2024 and launch its first battery electric vehicle (BEV) in 2028.
The first BEV model will be a 2+2 grand tourer, which means two front-row seats and another two in the back, with two doors, Lamborghini said.
Asked about the ratio of internal combustion engine (ICE) cars in its future lineup, the executive said, "Using synthetic fuels and so, keep using ICEs depends on the legislators around the world, and the way they will release and roll out new regulations in terms of emissions.
"If legislators would allow (car) manufacturers to still use ICE, again our dream would be to keep super sports cars with ICE, hybrid, synthetic and pure," he said.
South Korea is the No. 8 market for the Italian brand in terms of sales.
In 2022, Lamborghini's vehicle sales in the country rose 14 percent to 403 units from 353 a year earlier. From January to May this year, its sales jumped 26.5 percent to 143 units from 113 during the same period last year.
Globally, Lamborghini delivered a total of 9,233 autos last year, up 9.9 percent from 8,405 units the previous year.
"We don't oversupply the market, but we have a constant and controlled growth in the market, so we always supply the right quantity of cars to our markets and to our customers," Scardaoni said.
Source: Yonhap News Agency