Lamborghini's latest model is the Murciélago LP650-4 Roadster. Limited to 50 units it will offer an uprated 6.5 litre V12 engine that produces 650 hp (478 kW) along with permanent four-wheel drive: hence the model’s LP 650-4 moniker. With 660 Nm of torque, top performance is at 0-100km/h (0-62mph) in 3.4 seconds. The top speed is around 330 Km/h (205mph).

Lamborghini which has seen demand for its luxury sports cars drop by 30 percent during the first five months of this year doesn't expect a recovery in its sales to take place until 2011 according to President and CEO Stephan Winkelmann. Speaking at the Reuters Global Luxury Summit yesterday he sees another bad year in store in 2011, however Winkelmann was upbeat that the Bologna Sant'Agata-based sports carmaker would turn in a pre-tax profit this year.

Despite the 30 percent fall in sales in the period from January to May, Winkelmann expects Lamborghini to turn in a profit when half-year results are declared, and the picture will be the same for the full-year when a pre-tax profit is also expected to be announced. "We could stay profitable with sales that are dropping at 40 percent [in 2009]," Winkelmann told the industry summit. "We are foreseeing a scenario that is staying on the same level next year and coming back in 2011," he continued, adding that "I'm prepared to face another tough year in 2010."

Lamborghini sold 2,430 cars in 2008 which were in a price range from 170,000 to 360,000 euros, Winkelmann told the conference. He said that Lamborghini has this year cut production by 30 percent as it adjusted to the sharp sales downturn and as a positive result waiting lists had reduced from one year to six months. This year though will see the end to the remarkable year-on-year revenue and profit growth story that Lamborghini has achieved over the last few years. In 2008 pre-tax profit was up 27 percent year-on-year to 60 million euros as revenue climbed 2.5 percent to 479 million, and, although the global economic downturn started to hurt sales towards the end of the year, new cost-cutting measures started to reap dividends. Winkelmann's comments come just days after Lamborghini announced that it is to cut average emissions of its cars by around 35 percent in the next few years as its strives to make its heavily polluting sports cars more efficient in order to comply with tightening EU regulations.

The global economic downturn has hit most luxury goods producers, such as Lamborghini, very hard. Winkelmann said the firm was in "constant dialogue" with its suppliers in order to help them to "bridge a difficult situation". He added that "we are in the middle of the line between suppliers and dealers and we also have to deal with the unions," while revealing workers has been laid off for seven weeks so far this year taking advantage of the Italian government's scheme for temporary redundancy payments, a system which has been used in particular to great effect by Fiat in recent years. "I think the crisis is very deep," he added. However Winkelmann told the Reuters Global Luxury Summit that he believes that most customers have just postponed their purchase of a Lamborghini due to the current situation. "You buy it because it's a dream," he reckons.

While the United States remained Lamborghini's biggest single market, despite a 40 percent fall in sales over the first five months of the year, Winkelmann expects China to surpass Italy as the Raging Bull brand's second-largest market within the next three to five years. He said that while most Chinese regard the idea of luxury as being chauffer-driven due to the poor road surfaces and traffic congestion, owning a sports car was starting to become very fashionable. "They change so fast," he told the industry summit yesterday, "they change in a year like we changed in two decades in the past. They have such a knowledge about the brands and what is going on in Europe. They love what is coming out of Europe. What is European is something for them which they want to possess."

China became the world's largest car market at the beginning of the year as it overhauled the United States and Winkelmann expects to see sales remain steady there this year despite big falls elsewhere. In 2008 China was Lamborghini's ninth most important market, with 72 sales, one place ahead of Russia. Last year the United States was the Audi-owned brand's most important with 741 cars sold, more than three times bigger than its second market, Italy, where it sold 230 cars.