Andrea Baldi, CEO of Lamborghini Americas, on Cars, Watches, Collectability & Italy
Hundreds of people turned out on a rainy Toronto weeknight in April to see Lamborghini’s all-new, all-hybrid supercar: the 2026 Lamborghini Temerario. On hand to present the car to prospective clients and friends of the brand was Andrea Baldi, CEO of Automobili Lamborghini Americas.
Baldi seemed upbeat despite all the headlines of stock market turmoil and tariff uncertainty, because Lamborghini is coming off (another) very, very good year. The Sant’Agata Bolognese-based carmaker delivered a record breaking 10,687 cars worldwide, a 5.7 per cent increase over 2023. Even more impressive is the fact revenue was up 16 per cent to 3.09 billion euro.
Clearly, Lamborghini is doing something right, so we asked Baldi about the secret to the brand’s success, the new car, and — of course — his wrist watch.
I’d normally ask how you got into cars, but I think it’s obvious. You grew up in Italy’s Motor Valley, home of Ducati, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Pagani and so many other storied brands. So, tell us about this region of Italy and what cars mean to the people there.
That part of the country is very, very peculiar because the lifestyle… it’s not the typical Italian lifestyle. When you look at Italy from abroad, you think that Italians like to live slow and have fun, but actually, in the north of Italy, it’s one of the most industrialized areas in Europe. They’re hard workers and sometimes, especially in certain regions, they get a little almost fixated, and they work a lot to the point that they don’t seem so Italian. But we are in a region that seems to mix very well that very strong work ethic with also very strong attention to the most pleasant things in life — food, for sure, good company, but also good drive.
“If you’re good in picking the right watches, they gain value and they cost you nothing. And this is the same goal that we’re trying to achieve with Lamborghini.”
Andrea Baldi
Cars, food, good company… and watches. These things just go together. I can’t help but notice your Rolex Daytona. Are you a watch guy? Surely many of Lamborghini’s clients must be.
I like watches, and I have a few pieces that I like a lot. I’m surrounded by clients that are also collectors; they have some of the most incredible watches.
Why the Daytona for you?
Every year we go to Daytona, to the 24 hours, and we race there. Sometimes we win. It started with one of our drivers showing me the watch, the one that has the Daytona 24 “Winner” engraving on the back. He won it in a Lamborghini Huracán in 2019 I think.
What I appreciate about watches, is that it seems a very similar business to ours. So if you’re good in picking the right watches, they gain value and they cost you nothing. And this is the same goal that we’re trying to achieve with Lamborghini.
How do you do that? Is it all about limiting supply?
By controlling the quantities of new Lamborghinis, and by making sure that there is a careful control of the pre-owned market — in the end — you get cars that gain in value. We limit supply. We’re looking into always collecting orders, we’re looking into giving the cars to the right people, and if you are a little disciplined on that and diligently consistent, the results are impressive, because the client feels that they are not just expressing an impulse and buying something that the day after will depreciate. It’s the same with a watch, the right watch, like with the right cars.
How do you choose the right people for the cars where demand is much greater than supply? How do you get to the top of the list at Lamborghini?
When demand is clearly above supply, what we try to do is, first of all, we try to privilege and deliver to the clients that are really good customers. This is a natural process where our dealers also understand that you want to reward those that have been loyal to the brand, not those that are reselling the cars. We sort of manage to ensure that the cars are properly maintained, and clients are also not transforming them into something that is not original or without original parts, and they are maintained through the dealers. Because, if somebody else [e.g. a non-dealer garage] put his hands on the car, it may also jeopardize the value.
We know already where the first car should go, that’s easy. Then, gradually, we bring in people that have already cultured luxury collections, where we see that they understand what they’re buying, and they are not just interested in speculating. We set rules that are clearly imposed to the dealers and transparent to our clients. In the end, since we sell only 10,600 cars in the world, we can have that kind of understanding of our consumers.
Speaking of understanding your customers, you’re here for the Canadian unveiling of the all-new Temerario, successor to the extremely successful Huracan. The headline change people are talking about is the switch from the old naturally-aspirated V10 to a new twin-turbo V8 paired with a hybrid system. How are customers reacting to this new hybrid supercar from Lamborghini?
Very positive so far. I must say that having a twin-turbo V8 that goes above 10,000 rpmhas left everybody with an open mouth and very pleasantly surprised. What I have seen is that there is a significant portion of new people to the brand that are interested in the car. They’re coming from other brands. They’re coming from Ferrari, they come from McLaren. They seem to appreciate certain nuances in the design that have made the car more palatable for them, and maybe a little less edgy than a Lamborghini was before.
The price has jumped up a lot. The 2022 Huracan Tecnica was $279,630. The track-focused Huracan STO was nearly $400,000. The new 2026 Lamborghini Temerario starts at $432,490 in Canadian dollars.
This is more expensive than the most expensive Huracan, because Temerario is raising the bar enormously. Here we’re going to a 907 horsepower car, which has a completely different architecture, suspension and powertrain. With almost the same weight as the previous car, you get a car that’s way more powerful.
Okay, we saved the big question for last. How does it sound? Can the 10,000 rpm Temerario sound as good as the old V10?
There’s been so much time — I can’t even begin to tell you — spent on making sure that we reach the right noise with the car. As you mentioned, some of our more puristic clients may have been hoping that we have naturally aspirated engines, but this right-sizing, as we like to say, it’s the right approach for us. During the first tests with the car, there is really a pleasant surprise in everybody’s face when they realize that the car hasn’t lost a bit of that edge that Lamborghini can provide.
