The Lamborghini Reventon Roadster. Without it Lamborghini's losses would have been even worse
Lamborghini has revealed a loss of €35 million for 2009 on turnover down a massive €200 million on 2008. Just 1,515 cars were sold in 2009.
This time last year supercar maker Lamborghini was reporting some very healthy figures for 2008, with a turnover of almost half a billion Euros from the sale of 2,480 cars. Everything looked rosy for Lamborghini, despite the gathering storm clouds of recession. But 2009 has seen a big reversal of fortunes.
Sales for 2009 have fallen to €281 million – a 37.1% fall – with just 1,515 cars sold during 2009 – a fall of 39%. The biggest hits have been in Europe and the US, with the weakness of the US Dollar a major factor in cutting sales to American buyers. Lamborghini point out that a large number of their sales are traditionally to those who work in finanace, and we all know what’s happened to the banking industry in the last year.
The net result of these miserable figures is an overall loss for Lamborghini in 2009 of €35 million which, considering the huge drop in sales, is not too savage. And despite the big drop in sales Lamborghini actually increased its spend on R&D in 2009 by 32%, which Lamborghini claim is a testament to their long-term optimism. Which may well be true, but probably has more to do with the need to replace the ageing Murcielago with the Lamborghini Jota in the very near future.
But Lamborghini are in no way in real trouble. The halcyon days of easy finance and big bonuses may prevent them having real bumper years like 2008 for some time to come, but they can be profitable on smaller volumes if need be. And they are pushing ahead with the all new Jota as well as continuing to bring a stream of very profitable niche builds like the Reventon Roadster to the market.
And at least the wait for a new Lamborghini has just about gone if you are still able to finance a supercar from Sant’Agata
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