Francesco Scardaoni, Lamborghini’s Asia Pacific regional director, reported that – they sold out their allocation of the Revuelto for the Korean market until 2025 through pre-orders, even before the official launch.
In 2022, Lamborghini experienced a milestone year in South Korea. The country became the brand’s eighth-largest global market and topped the Asia Pacific region with over 403 units sold. In response to the growing demand for luxury vehicles, Lamborghini launched its first hybrid sports car, the Revuelto, in the Korean market on June 23rd, 2023, and received an incredible response.
Korean Celebrity Effect
Exotic cars are just making their way into the mainstream in Korean shows, thus making them more acceptable to the public. The latest appearance in the Netflix show “King the Land” showcases a beautiful Huracan, when previous Korean shows were pretty strick only showing cars from the domestic market, mainly from Hyundai. Still of note, all cars in Korean shows are de-badged and you can see below that Lambo lost its raging bull emblem as well.
Korean market performs exceptionally well despite the global recession
Scardaoni joined Lamborghini in 2009 as the after-sales regional manager for southern Europe and the Middle East. His ongoing role and strategic vision fuel the brand’s successful expansion in the Asia Pacific region. Scardaoni, who has directed the region for over two years, visits Korea approximately every two months and identifies the strategic importance of Korea for the brand.
He asserted, “Despite the global economic downturn, the Korean market performs exceptionally well in the luxury segment. We anticipate ongoing growth and believe it hasn’t yet reached its peak.” While Scardaoni did not reveal specific pre-order numbers for the Huracan sports car, the Urus SUV, and the latest Revuelto, he underscored the strong possibility of another record sales year, outperforming the previous year’s 403 units
Lamborghini’s various marketing strategies for Korea
Despite Lamborghini’s soaring success, Scardaoni restated Lamborghini’s dedication to a controlled growth strategy to avoid oversupplying any of its products. Lamborghini plans various marketing activities and events as part of this strategy, including the fourth round of the Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo Asia Series in Korea in August this year. They also plan to expand with a new showroom in Busan, which will open next year and allow the brand to connect with more customers outside Seoul.
Lamborghini’s future electrification strategy
Lamborghini’s innovative approach is evident in its two-phase electrification strategy, with Revuelto as the first step. The next phase involves launching hybrid versions of the Huracan and Urus in 2024. By 2028, Lamborghini intends to roll out a battery-powered cross-utility vehicle with two front and two rear seats, marking their foray into the growing EV segment.
“Our ideal car lineup ranges from internal combustion engine cars to EVs, hybrid cars, and synthetic fuel vehicles. We can’t fully abandon gas-powered cars as developing electrified versions of sports cars is challenging,” Scardaoni clarified.
Only VIPs are offered the chance to buy newly launched Lamborghini cars before anyone else!
Luxury car manufacturers like Lamborghini often offer VIP customers the opportunity to purchase cars before they are officially launched. This strategy aims to enhance brand loyalty and ensure economic viability as well as prestige and exclusivity. High-net-worth individuals, who make up the VIP customers, appreciate this exclusive privilege and tend to promote the brand within their influential networks.
This approach guarantees sales at premium prices and generates organic buzz, effectively providing free advertising for upcoming models. By releasing the cars early to a select few, the brand further cultivates the allure of exclusivity, a fundamental aspect of luxury branding. Additionally, any feedback from these early users can be utilized to refine the vehicle before its general release.
The bump in price when the cars are actually available for sale in the showroom, at a large premium, also certainly helps buyer to feel better about their lavish spending, often making them to believe that they made a deal buying the car at sticker price when market value can be hunders of thousands of dollar more.
There is a catch
If you actually want to pocket the difference between VIP list pre-order price and market value, Lamborghini will most likely remove you from the VIP list and put you straight into a blacklist of do not sale. So while you can parade your very exclusive car, it is kind of hard to really make money on it, at least until the ‘no sale period’ expire, and that usually range from 6 months to a year and a half.
This practice is expected in the luxury automobile industry and extends to other luxury sectors.