GREENWICH — West Putnam Avenue has lengthy held a distinguished place on the circuit of automobile collectors. That recognition has helped one of many world’s main makers of ultra-luxury automobiles make a quick begin throughout its first 12 months of gross sales in Connecticut.
Almost a 12 months after opening its showroom at 300 W. Putnam Ave., Lamborghini is seeing sturdy native demand for its “tremendous vehicles.” The exercise on the Greenwich gallery displays a interval of document gross sales for the Italian firm, which is flourishing amid the headwinds of the COVID-19 pandemic and forging forward with the event of extra energy-efficient automobiles.
“Individuals are drawn to figuring out the place they’re going to go to purchase an vehicle,” Robert DiStanislao, president of RDS Automotive Group, which operates the Greenwich showroom, stated in an interview. “In Greenwich, you already know that you just’re going to West Putnam Avenue to purchase an vehicle.”
Opening in Greenwich
Lamborghini’s Greenwich showroom opened in February. It’s housed in a newly constructed white-cube construction that covers greater than 9,000 sq. ft.
“Earlier than we received right here, if somebody in Connecticut wished a Lamborghini, they’d should go to a location outdoors the state equivalent to Lamborghini Manhattan or Lamborghini Boston,” Paul Kim, common supervisor of Lamborghini Greenwich, stated in an interview. “We additionally present servicing, as you’ll be able to’t have simply anyone work on automobiles of this high quality. So we predict we’re filling an actual want.”
The opening of Lamborghini Greenwich bolstered a stretch of West Putnam Avenue that has lengthy been a nexus for luxury-car retailers. Showrooms for the likes of Audi, Bentley, BMW, Ferrari, Maserati, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and Rolls-Royce additionally function on the blocks of West Putnam Avenue close to the downtown.
That confluence of top-end automotive manufacturers displays their location in one of many nation’s wealthiest cities, the place the median family earnings from 2015 to 2019 was $152,577, in line with U.S. Census Bureau knowledge.
“It’s an necessary marketplace for us as a result of there are a whole lot of high-net-worth people on this space,” Lamborghini CEO and Chairman Stephan Winkelmann stated in an interview. “It’s an amazing match for our model.”
Lamborghini’s new showroom holds as much as three automobiles at a time. Complementing the vehicles are inside prospers equivalent to images of Miles Davis, Dean Martin and firm founder Ferruccio Lamborghini posing with traditional fashions. There’s additionally a portrait of a Lamborghini Miura with a Frank Sinatra quote that reads, “You purchase a Ferrari once you need to be any person. You purchase a Lamborghini if you find yourself any person.”
The “somebodies” who go to the showroom are usually automobile collectors — and so they have expansive budgets. The 2021 model of Lamborghini’s prime vendor, the Urus Tremendous SUV, has a base worth of about $218,000.
“When folks custom-order the automobile, they normally add a couple of extra choices, so the vehicles normally transact within the higher 200 (thousand greenback vary),” DiStanislao stated. “They will get completely different highway wheels, they’ll get completely different inside choices, they’ll change the seating association, they’ll change the colours, they’ll customise the stitching. In case you change the leather-based upholstery and the stitching variations, you’ll be able to rapidly add one other $20,000.”
In its first 12 months, the Greenwich showroom expects to promote about 70 new Lamborghinis, supplemented by the sale of about 50 pre-owned automobiles that patrons have traded in equivalent to Land Rovers and Rolls-Royces.
“We’ve carried out higher than we anticipated,” DiStanislao stated. “The demand for the product is unimaginable.”
The Greenwich showroom and different places throughout the nation are contributing to a worldwide increase for Lamborghini. Throughout the first six months of 2021, it recorded its greatest half-year ever — with gross sales rising 37 p.c from the identical interval in 2020 and seven p.c from the primary half of 2019. Within the first half of this 12 months, the corporate delivered 4,852 automobiles. The U.S. accounted for the biggest market, with 1,502 deliveries.
Executives at different luxury-car sellers on West Putnam Avenue, equivalent to Miller Motorcars, stated they see room for an additional showroom on the highway.
“To some extent, Lamborghini is a competitor, but it surely’s very complimentary to our enterprise and types,” stated Matthew Horowitz, director of promoting at Miller Motorcars. “It brings new patrons to city who could sooner or later buy one other model car from us.”
On West Putnam Avenue, Miller Motorcars operates showrooms for Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, Bugatti, Bentley, Ferrari, Maserati, McLaren, Pagani and Rolls-Royce, in addition to a service heart. It additionally runs an Alfa Romeo and Maserati showroom in Westport and a service heart in Stamford.
Horowitz added that “gross sales and repair enterprise in 2021 have been robust. The pandemic has been good for our enterprise as a result of a automobile is your personal private escape pod. It’s one thing you’ll be able to get pleasure from by your self or along with your shut members of the family with out worrying about COVID.”
Many challenges — however nonetheless ‘very optimistic’
Lamborghini has produced document gross sales regardless of quite a few disruptions to the worldwide provide chain because the starting of the pandemic.
“There isn’t a doubt that the issues with the worldwide provide chain affected Connecticut’s dealerships — all automobiles, not simply the luxurious vehicles,” stated Sarah Fryxell, president of the Connecticut Automotive Retailers Affiliation. “With microchips exhausting to return by and the shutting down of meeting strains by the auto producers at the start of the pandemic, dealerships are discovering it a problem to satisfy demand.”
Right this moment, a Lamborghini purchaser can anticipate to attend, on common, a couple of 12 months to obtain the car. However that timeframe displays the extent to which shopper demand is exceeding the manufacturing facility capability in its hometown of Sant’Agata Bolognese in northern Italy — not as a result of it’s struggling to acquire components.
Winkelmann attributed the corporate’s provide resilience largely to the help of mum or dad firm Volkswagen Group, whose different top-end manufacturers embrace Audi, Bentley and Ducati.
“They provide us the quantities we want,” Winkelmann stated. “Subsequently, we’re not struggling a scarcity of the chips.”
Lamborghini’s long-term objectives embrace launching its first hybrid-series manufacturing automobile in 2023 and electrifying its complete vary by the top of 2024. It’s aiming to scale back its merchandise’ carbon dioxide emissions by 50 p.c by the start of 2025. To help the hybrid transition, the corporate is allocating greater than 1.5 billion euros over 4 years — the equal of about $1.7 billion.
“We’re in a part of nice transformation from internal-combustion engines into hybridization,” Winkelmann stated. “That is one thing that’s making our lives very fascinating. It’s very difficult, and we’ve got lots on our plate. However we’re very optimistic about the way forward for Lamborghini.”
[email protected]; twitter: @paulschott
