High-horsepower cars at the IAA: Between elemental force and irrationality

At the IAA Mobility, the motto is “sustainable and electric”. The horsepower swagger of earlier auto shows seems to be over. But they still exist: the fast companions for speed fans.

“Speakeasy”: That was the name of illegal pubs in the USA in times of Prohibition, in which alcohol was served despite the prohibition – often in dark basement rooms. A similar feeling arose when the prototype of a small Bavarian car manufacturer was presented in Munich – even if it wasn’t about schnapps, but about horsepower. In an underground car park, ELegend showed a vehicle whose design is based heavily on the first Audi Quattro. From next year on, 30 copies are to be built, at a unit price of almost 900,000 euros plus VAT.

Head of the company, Marcus Holzinger, promises high performance figures in view of an electric drive with around 800 hp: “We have peeled the design issues out of our model and wrapped them in a futuristic guise. The performance is enormous. We have an acceleration of nine seconds to 200 km / h and from zero to 100 is possible in 2.5 to 2.6 seconds. “

On the leap into the electric future

What Holzinger wants to achieve with electric drives, Stephan Winkelmann’s cars do with conventional engines. The head of Lamborghini invited customers to a party in a chic backyard location in Munich. The current model range of the Italian Audi subsidiary could be seen there, all powered by high-horsepower combustion engines.

But that should change in the coming years, Winkelmann announced: “We currently have three products: the Aventador, the Huracan and the Urus. We are also planning a fourth model for the second half of this decade. And that will be the first fully electric Be the car that Lamborghini makes. “

It’s a balancing act for a brand like Lamborghini. After all, in addition to radical design, the brand stands for unrestrained elemental force and a roaring engine sound. It could therefore be a challenge for Winkelmann and his team to make an electric Lamborghini palatable to customers. “In any case, it must still have a great design,” says Winkelmann, and adds: “And of course – in terms of driving characteristics – it has to be better than the current generation. And that is also our promise for the future.”

PS and electric drive are not mutually exclusive

You have to look for automobile irrationality on the exhibition grounds itself. The novelties from the major manufacturers this year are vehicles that are designed to be manufactured in a sustainable way and as gentle as possible. That’s why you rarely see real fan enthusiasm at the stands of VW, BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Unlike in Hall B4, with the oldtimers and classic cars. There Gereon Methner is the contact person at the stand of a renowned dealer between a historic Lamborghini and an old Jaguar. He cannot complain about a lack of interest.

“I think that interested parties, especially from the electrical sector, want to see real cars again,” he says. “And I hope that we can infect a few there too, so that the love for these cars remains.” Many of the old combustion engines are valued at least as an investment. The prices for numerous classic cars and oldtimers have risen sharply in recent years.