Lamborghini commits to automatic-only future as manual gearbox fades

Lamborghini has closed the door on manual gearboxes entirely, according to Federico Foschini, the Italian automaker's Chief Marketing and Sales Officer, in an interview with Road & Track published this week. The Sant'Agata manufacturer will not offer a simulated manual option—a path Ferrari has explored—for any upcoming model. The decision reflects the racing pedigree that shapes Lamborghini's engineering philosophy: the company builds production cars that mirror the technology found in its race programme, where dual-clutch automatics have long been standard.

The move underscores a broader shift across high-performance manufacturing. Road & Track and Car and Driver report that manual transmissions have become vanishingly rare among supercar builders worldwide, with fewer than 30 powerful vehicles available from the factory with a traditional manual gearbox. Ferrari, Lamborghini's closest rival in the Motor Valley, has also opted for lightning-quick dual-clutch systems across nearly all its lineup, a trend that extends to the newly unveiled Luce electric vehicle.

For Emilia-Romagna's engineering sector, the decision reflects a wider industrial reality: the region's supercars—Lamborghini, Ferrari, and Ducati motorcycles—are locked in a technological race where transmission speed and precision matter more to buyers and to competition than the tactile experience of a clutch pedal. The shift also signals how Motor Valley producers are betting their future on automated systems and electrification, even as nostalgia for manual driving persists among enthusiasts in international markets.

Foschini's remarks come as Lamborghini prepares to launch the Temerario, a junior supercar positioned as the sibling to the Revuelto. According to Car and Driver's recent interior and exterior galleries, the Temerario matches the Revuelto's performance credentials while maintaining a distinct design language—a strategy that depends entirely on the sophistication of its transmission and powertrain electronics.

The manual transmission's disappearance from high-performance cars reflects both market demand and technological capability. Buyers of contemporary supercars prioritise acceleration metrics and lap times, which dual-clutch automatics deliver more reliably than human-operated manuals. For Lamborghini, rooted in a region where manufacturing precision is a civic virtue, the choice to standardise on automatic systems aligns production with racing reality: Lamborghini's competition programme has no room for manual transmissions, and the company's philosophy holds that production cars should embody that same engineering DNA.