Lamborghini this morning announced record sales figures for the first six months of this year, with 1,343 of the 'Raging Bull' sports car models finding customers during this period while its revenues also rose significantly and were up by more than 50 percent to 222 million euros. The V12-engined super sports car model, the Murciélago, in particular performed well - it saw its sales almost doubling year-on-year.

The impressive figures were revealed when Lamborghini's automotive parent company Audi Group released its interim report for the first sixth months of 2007 which saw the German carmaker increasing its gross profit year on year by 40.2 percent to 2,436 (1,738) million euros and officially confirming its commitment to a Brussels-built A1 model in 2009.

Audi bought the four decade old Italian sports car maker, Lamborghini, at the end of the last century and after making significant investments sales have steadily climbed. It broke the 1,000 units per year sales barrier in 2002, and last year it hit another milestone when it reached sales of 2,087 cars, a company record. It turned its first pre-tax profit in 2005 (4.4 million euros) and last year announced a quadrupling of these earnings of 18.1 million euros. Global dealership numbers went up by more than 10 percent last year as it pushed to strengthen its presence in mature markets such as the US and UK and at the same time broke into emerging new markets including Russia, China, Brazil and India.

This morning Lamborghini was able to announce healthy sales of 1,343 units of its Sant’Agata Bolognese-built sports car models during the first half of the year.
 

This was up 48.9 percent up on the 902 units total it sold during the same period of 2006. "The increase in the number of the Lamborghini Murciélago and Gallardo models built was particularly impressive," said the Audi Group interim report this morning.

The 5.0-litre V10-powered Gallardo model accounted for 1,052 sales during the first six months, significantly up from the 749 units that were sold during the same period last year. The 'mid-size' Gallardo was boosted by much greater than expected demand for the new lightweight Superleggera model and continuing interest in the Spyder version, the latter which accounted for the bulk of sales. The bigger Murciélago sports car saw its sales almost doubling to 291 units during the first six months of this year, from 153 during the first six months of 2006, thanks to demand for its ferocious 640bhp 6.5-litre V12-engined LP640 version which is now available on the market in both Coupé and Spyder format.

The Italian super sports car manufacturer increased its vehicle revenues by 53.1 percent to 222 million euros; from 145 million euros during the first half of 2006. Parent company Audi was pleased with the performance of its Italian concern saying: "the Lamborghini brand also made noteworthy progress." Staff levels at Lamborghini also continued to climb, from 722 (at 30.06.2006) to 941 at the end of last month.