Lamborghini sets ambitious goals amid slowing market

Italian automaker aims to be nation's main super car player by 2018

After several years of rapid growth, China, the world's fifth largest super luxury sports car market, is slowing down. However, Italian super sports carmaker Automobili Lamborghini is confronting its future in the nation with optimism, as it believes in the maturity of the market and customers.

"The future is going to be bright for the super sports car business in China. It is going to be a more normal market with less peak growth like we had in the past," said Francesco Scardaoni, managing director of Automobili Lamborghini China.

China is Lamborghini's second largest market after the United States, and it is changing, the company said.

In China, Lamborghini's main customers are now entrepreneurs and businesspeople aged between 30 and 40 years old, compared to its former China demographic of young people below the age of 25.

In Europe, entrepreneurs and professional businesspeople are Lamborghini's main customers.

As a global super luxury sports car manufacturer, Lamborghini believes keeping its products exclusive is more important than sales numbers. Thus, it keeps production just below market demand.

The brand has delivered more than 1,300 cars to Chinese customers since entering the market 10 years ago.

According to the company, its China sales were slow at the beginning, but from 2007 to 2009 the brand saw tremendous growth inline with the dramatic growth of the nation's vehicle market.

Last year, the company sold 236 cars in China. Globally, it sold 2,530, a historical record for Lamborghini.

This year, Scardaoni said that the sales goal is "to do better than last year".

"It's only half way through the year and its still too early to forecast before the year ends. But the trend is going well, so we are very confident of doing better than last year," he said.

His confidence could come from the Hurac��n and Aventador models, which are both on sale in China for the whole of 2015.

For the foreseeable future, Scardaoni is also very confident about the brand's performance in China.

"We believe in the potential of this market, especially in 2018, when we have the new Lamborghini SUV. It will be a big change in terms of units sold in the market. We expect to see a stronger growth in 2018," he said.

Challenges

According to Scardaoni, Lamborghini aims to be "the main player" in China's super car segment by 2018, when the brand's first SUV is due to hit the market.

Like all automakers, those in China's super luxury sport car market have also got challenges to deal with. Lamborghini is no exception.

The company faces fierce market competition. More brands have come into the market with smaller engines and cheaper price tags. Lamborghini will have to compete with its rivals, while maintaining its ethos and design.

Customer emphasis on the characterized design of the brand's cars and the need for a comfortable vehicle suitable for daily life have forced Lamborghini to invest a lot to create cars that are both practical but also appealing and racetrack worthy.

The sports car culture is not as popular in China compared with countries like Italy. Therefore the Italian carmaker is making extra efforts to host racing events to promote its brand and help develop sports car culture in China.

Established in 1963 and headquartered in Bologna, Automobili Lamborghini is owned by the Volkswagen Group through its subsidiary brand division Audi AG.

This year marks the brand's 10th anniversary in China.

The company is planning an event called "China Giro", which means China Tour in Italian, which will start in Shanghai in mid July, before moving to Guangzhou at the end of the month, Chengdu in September and Dalian in October.

duxiaoying1@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 07/06/2015 page19)