THE CAR INQUISITION
Good job, too. Lamborghini’s new CTO must steer a path to electrification while keeping the magical V12 alive.
I AS A CHILD LAMBORGHINI WAS ALWAYS SOMETHING OVER-WHELMING; UNLIKE ANY OTHER BRAND
Sometimes in life and in business you’re faced with tasks that would appear impossible. Do you treat them as an overwhelming burden to battle or a challenge to be relished?
Lamborghini’s new chief technology officer must fill the enormous shoes of his illustrious and much-loved predecessor and, what’s more, he’s faced with pivoting a marque inextricably associated with charismatic combustion engines to an electric future. And Rouven Mohr is enthusiastic about the challenges ahead.
‘I’m a guy that always likes to have challenges,’ says the 43-year-old German engineer. ‘I mean, if you continue only the existing story then up to a certain level it can be boring. We’re challenged by the situation of the future but this is also a big opportunity to demonstrate that we can make it work even better than the others.’
Those stylish shoes he’s stepping into belonged to Maurizio Reggiani, Lamborghini’s erstwhile CTO and technical director since the mid-2000s.
Reggiani was an integral part of the creation of every Lambo since the final Diablos in the ’90s, and transferred internally in January to head the motorsport division. This is Dr Mohr’s second stint at Lamborghini, returning from a senior engineering role at Audi (where, in a previous job, he projectmanaged cars including the TT).
‘I was head of Lamborghini whole vehicle development from 2017, involved in the Urus, Huracan Evo and Aventador SVJ, working under Maurizio Reggiani. He is a fantastic engineer and I count him as a great friend, too; we still speak closely.’
While he’s at pains to point out that the Urus was very much a Lamborghini team achievement rather than an individual one, the firm’s first SUV is a point of pride for Mohr. Did he feel pressure, developing Lamborghini’s first SUV (first mainstream one, at least, leaving aside the likeably mad LM002)?
‘I wouldn’t call it pressure. It was a challenge for sure but also, from an engineering point of view, it’s more or less the best thing you can have. To define the car’s targets with the team, then to bring it to the road, to drive it, feel it and then have feedback from journalists and customers that it’s a real Lamborghini – that’s the best experience you can have.’
With that in mind, how long can the V12 engine, a part of the Lamborghini story since the very beginning, continue? CAR understands that the Aventador’s successor will still be V12-powered and turbo-free, although with a powerful hybrid system to bot
