WHEN Germany's Audi AG bought Lamborghini SpA 10 years ago, the supercar-maker was losing money, losing customers and losing status.

Last year, the latter posted a 160 per cent rise in pre-tax profit to 47.1 million euros (S$100.7 million) on revenue of 467.1 million euros. Of the earnings, 10.5 million euros were from Lamborghini merchandise.

Not bad for a company that, as recently as 2003 and for most of its 46-year history, was in the red.

It sold 2,406 cars last year, 15.3 per cent more than the year before and almost 10 times the 250 units it sold in 2002.

SPEEDSTER: The Gallardo LP560-4 was launched in Las Vegas this week. Chief executive Stephen Winkelmann (above) says the Italian supercar-maker might turn to turbocharging in the future.

Says the Italian company's chief executive Stephen Winkelmann: 'If you look at our profit and turnover, the margin is more than 10 per cent, which is very good for any car company.'

Things are looking rosier this year. In the first three months, vehicle deliveries hit 850 units - 8 per cent more than the same period last year.

At the launch of the latest Gallardo LP 560-4 here, Mr Winkelmann predicted a 5 per cent increase in sales this year.

The new car is expected to contribute significantly to this growth.

Deliveries will start next month in Europe, and Singapore is expected to get its shipment by year-end or early next year. It will be priced at $890,000 each.

Asked if he has a target year for overtaking a key competitor, Mr Winkelmann - who appears more like an Italian movie star than the hardnosed German CEO that he is - says: 'We don't have any competitor. We have a neighbour.

'While selling more cars is good, we want to maintain our exclusivity too.'

Ferrari, which once said it would not sell more than 3,000 cars a year to maintain exclusivity, now sells more than 5,000 cars a year.

To remain exclusive also means staying focused. For this reason, Mr Winkelmann says Lamborghini will not venture beyond making supercars. He avoids talk of the once speculated sports-utility vehicle.

'We will continue to make derivatives from our two platforms,' he says, referring to the Gallardo and its bigger brother, the Murcielago.

'There are not many supercar-makers in the world - Lamborghini, Ferrari and perhaps Aston Martin - so I think staying focused is more important than a high sales volume.'

Adding to that, he poses a rhetoric: 'What's more important in life - meat or salt? We're on the salt side.'

He then avoids answering a question about when the two models will be entirely renewed, merely saying 'they have some way to go'.

But he does venture to say Lamborghini might resort to turbocharging: 'We've always believed in high output normally aspirated engines. But in the future, for emission compliance, we may have to look at turbocharging. We don't know yet.'

He also reveals that the company might explore a lower-priced two-wheel-drive model. All Lamborghinis are currently all-wheel-drives. In all possibility, that will develop within the next 10 years.

This article was first published in The Straits Times on May 17, 2008.