The Lanzador Concept previews Lamborghini's first EV

So what do we think of the design? Lamborghini’s CEO calls it the first ‘Ultra GT’ and certainly, all it shares with most SUVs is that raised ride height. Personally, I prefer it to the Urus. It feels less stylistically compromised by the shared platform it’s lumbered with. We’ve not seen anything like it – just look at that short nose, thanks to there being no engine – but it is unmistakably a modern Lamborghini. 

Needless to say, there’s a lot of Urus at the front, while the side profile has echoes of Estoque and indeed, in the window-line, a bit of Huracan. At the rear, it’s almost a dead ringer for the Countach LPi-800. All in? It’s an SUV Coupe, so it was never going to trouble the Jaguar E-Type for prettiest car of all time, but it is troublingly inoffensive to our eyes.

“The proportions are new and unseen, with the potential to create an entirely new automotive segment”, said Lamborghini head of design, Mitja Borkert.

“The Lanzador presents super sportscar volumes but with the pilot in a slightly higher position, echoing that of the Huracán Sterrato. It is designed for a new generation growing up in an era of high tech and digitalization, and demonstrates new and fresh ideas within Lamborghini in terms of our approach to sustainability, via an interior delivering more space and using innovative materials. The Lanzador is a brave and unexpected concept with an emotional design and Lamborghini approach to creating a true Ultra GT.” 

A sustainable Lamborghini

In terms of the design of the cabin, there’s actually a bit of Ferrari Purosangue, in that there is very much a driver’s zone and a passenger’s zone. There’s more of a ‘cockpit’ feel in the Lanzador, with a higher-up floating centre console. Within, the usual fighter jet-style controls and a rather strange, alien-looking dial, possibly for the climate control? Who knows, though of all the designs seen on the Concept, we expect the cabin to change the most for production.

The driver has a digital display, while a similar panel sits in front of the front passenger. Rear passengers (it is a 2+2 after all) get retractable panels too and when there aren’t passengers, those rear seats fold for a rather commodious space accessible via a nice big hatch. There’s plenty of mood lighting – switchable of course – and a new sporty design of wheel that thins out a lot of what we saw on the Revuelto.

To go along with the electric power push, there is a focus on being a bit more environmentally conscious in the Lanzador. The days of trimming 500g/km supercars in skinned cow are rightly coming to a close. Just not quite yet, because while it’s ‘sustainably tanned’ with wastewater from olive oil production, leather is still leather in the Lanzador. 

Elsewhere however it does use Merino wool, which is less energy intensive from sheep to car than creating synthetic fabrics, while what synthetic fibres are used are in several areas, make use of recycled plastic reclaimed from the ocean. Even the foam in the seats is 3D-printed reclaimed plastic bottles. Even the carbon fibre in the Lanzador features recycled elements, including carbon and PET, combined with bio resin.

1,360PS, twin-motor and Lamborghini's most sophisticated chassis

Okay enough about the sustainability stuff. This is a Lamborghini after all. So yes, it packs some serious power. The twin-motor setup within the new SSP Sport platform delivers 1,360PS (1,000kW) to all four wheels with the distribution of power, traction control and adaptive chassis parameters dictated by a new highly advanced Lamborghini Dynamic Vehicle Integration (LDVI) system. The Lanzador has more sensors and more actuators than even the Revuelto, while making use of radar to read the surface ahead and allow these adjustments to be proactive rather than reactive.

Fundamentally, though, the Lanzador is envisioned as a grand tourer; a car to pick up where the likes of the Espada left off, different as it does look to the Lamborghini’s legendary V12 GT. So what do you think of the Lanzador? No, it’s not the production Estoque we’ve all been wanting for over a decade but we’ll be damned if this isn’t by a long way, the most pleasant design yet that you could classify as an SUV coupe. Your thoughts, as ever, are welcomed below…