A Record Year That Reveals More Than Brand Pride
Lamborghini reported that 2021 marked one of its best years ever for international awards, with the company claiming double the number of accolades compared to the prior two years. The models recognized span an almost absurd range: the Urus Super SUV, the track-weapon Huracán STO, the road-biased Huracán EVO RWD, and the Sián FKP 37, Lamborghini’s first production hybrid. Awards came from publications in Germany, France, the UK, the United States, India, and Singapore.
A trophy shelf, by itself, makes for dull reading. What makes this particular haul worth examining is the diversity. Winning “Best Large SUV” from German readers and “Electric Car of the Year” from a British motoring journalist in the same calendar year tells you something concrete about where Lamborghini’s product strategy sits relative to Ferrari, Porsche, and McLaren. No other supercar manufacturer covered that much ground simultaneously, and the breadth of recognition across continents and segments threads through every model honored here.
The Urus: Winning Over Skeptics One German Reader Poll at a Time
The Urus collected three German awards alone. For the second consecutive year, readers of Auto Motor und Sport voted it Best Car in the Large SUV (imported car) category. Sport Auto named it Best SUV in the same imported segment. And OFF ROAD magazine handed it the OFF ROAD AWARD for Luxury SUVs.
German automotive publications are famously difficult to impress, particularly when the competition includes Porsche’s Cayenne Turbo GT and the Bentley Bentayga. Repeat wins in reader-voted polls suggest something beyond novelty: the Urus built genuine loyalty among owners who drove it through real winters and real commutes. The fact that an off-road magazine recognized a Lamborghini at all would have seemed absurd a decade ago. The Urus changed that calculus entirely, and the awards reflect a customer base that actually uses the vehicle rather than garaging it.
The practical takeaway for prospective buyers is straightforward. The Urus earned its recognition as a daily-usable performance SUV, not a showroom ornament. That distinction matters when you consider how many competitors in this segment trade real-world versatility for lap-time bragging rights. More broadly, the Urus awards illustrate the first pillar of Lamborghini’s diversification: a model that competes credibly in a category the brand never previously occupied.
The Lamborghini Urus stands boldly on a frozen lake amidst striking ice formations.
Huracán STO and EVO: The V10 Range Sweeps Both Sides of the Spectrum
The Huracán STO picked up two awards from France’s Motorsport Magazine: Sports Car of the Year and Best Engine 2021. CarBuzz in the United States designated it the 2021 Track Weapon. When a French motorsport publication singles out your naturally aspirated V10 as the best engine of the year, that carries weight in a market increasingly dominated by turbocharged alternatives.
The road-focused Huracán EVO RWD collected accolades from a different audience entirely. Robb Report (USA) named it Sports Car of the Year 2021, while Robb Report Singapore chose the Spyder as Best Convertible in its Best of the Best competition. CarandBike magazine in India added another Sports Car of the Year nod.
The geographic and editorial spread is what stands out. The STO won over track-obsessed publications; the EVO RWD won over luxury lifestyle editors. That split is deliberate. Lamborghini positioned the Huracán family to cover both the weekend track-day enthusiast and the grand-touring buyer who wants a naturally aspirated V10 without a roll cage. Few competitors managed to claim both audiences from a single platform in the same year. McLaren’s 765LT earned track credibility but rarely appeared in luxury lifestyle awards. Ferrari’s F8 Tributo collected design praise but lacked a dedicated track variant as raw as the STO. From a single V10 architecture, Lamborghini produced two distinct personalities, and the awards confirmed that both resonated on their own terms.
The Lamborghini Huracán STO carves a corner on the track with a stunning mountain backdrop.
The Sián’s ‘Electric Car of the Year’ Win: Cheeky, but Prescient
Top Gear magazine (UK) awarded the Sián FKP 37 “Electric Car of the Year” at its Electric Awards, a choice made by journalist Chris Harris. A V12 hypercar with a supercapacitor-assisted hybrid system winning an electric award sounds like a punchline, and it was, in part. Chris Harris is not known for reverence. But the selection also acknowledged something genuine: the Sián represented Lamborghini’s first serious step toward electrification, and it did so without abandoning the naturally aspirated V12 that defines the brand’s identity.
One source reports that the Sián paired a 6.5-liter V12 with a 48-volt electric motor for a combined 819 horsepower, using a supercapacitor instead of traditional lithium-ion batteries. That supercapacitor approach, reportedly three times more powerful than a battery of equivalent weight, signaled that Lamborghini intended to electrify on its own terms. With only 63 coupes and 19 roadsters produced (all sold before the first delivery), the Sián was a technology demonstrator wrapped in a limited-edition hypercar.
If the Urus proved Lamborghini could diversify by segment, and the Huracán family proved it could diversify by character, the Sián proved it could diversify by powertrain philosophy. The company won an “electric” award without a single plug, which is either audacious marketing or a genuinely different approach to hybridization. Probably both. Looking at the Sián’s recognition now, it reads like a preview of the Revuelto’s hybrid V12 architecture and the broader electrification roadmap Lamborghini committed to afterward.
The stunning Lamborghini Sián FKP 37 in matte gold glides across a historic cobblestone square.
What These Awards Actually Signal About Lamborghini’s Competitive Position
Ferrari won plenty of awards in 2021 too, but almost exclusively for mid-engine sports cars. Porsche’s recognition clustered around the 911 and the Taycan. McLaren’s accolades centered on track performance. Lamborghini is the only manufacturer in this tier that collected awards across a performance SUV, a track-homologated supercar, a grand-touring convertible, and a hybrid hypercar in a single year.
That breadth is the real story. It demonstrates that Lamborghini’s decision to diversify beyond two-seat mid-engine cars, a strategy that drew skepticism when the Urus launched, produced a lineup where every model competes credibly in its own segment. The awards function as third-party confirmation from editors and readers across three continents, validating not just individual cars but the strategic logic connecting them.
For existing owners, the record year reinforces resale desirability and brand prestige. For prospective buyers, it confirms that the current lineup represents a high-water mark in Lamborghini’s product strategy. And for anyone watching the brand’s electrification trajectory, the Sián’s recognition suggests that Lamborghini’s hybrid future, now fully realized in the Revuelto, earned external credibility well before the first plug-in V12 rolled off the line in Sant’Agata Bolognese. Doubling the trophy count in a single year is a nice headline. Doing it across four fundamentally different vehicles is the achievement that actually matters.
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