GLAMOUR AND FARMING usually don’t go together. In India, definitely not. But that’s about to change. Soon, farmers (albeit only the well-heeled ones) here will be able to till their lands with ultra-luxury tractors. We’re talking about Lamborghini—yes, tractors, not sportscars—which will be launched in India in six months. India is the world’s largest market for tractors with 600,000 units sold annually.
Italian Ferruccio Lamborghini, a mechanic in the Italian Royal Air Force, started his business building tractors with surplus World War II hardware. By mid-1950, Lamborghini’s tractor company, Lamborghini Trattori S.p.A., had become one of the largest farm equipment manufacturers in Italy. Today, the business is owned by Same Deutz-Fahr, another Italian farm equipment manufacturer. Volkswagen owns the sportscar business.
A Lamborghini tractor is first a style statement. Bhanu Sharma, managing director and CEO of Same Deutz-Fahr India, says even politicians, entrepreneurs, Bollywood stars, and sportstars have evinced interest in the 30-hp (horsepower) tractor, its smallest offering. “It can be used for farming the tiniest of tracts, mowing cricket fields, or even as golf carts and trolleys.” He adds that people want the “bull” for the pride of its possession. Little wonder, the sales tagline is: ‘Own a Lamborghini, the tractor comes free!’
The clutchless four-wheel-drive beauties come with luxurious trappings and high-end technology such as air-conditioned cabins and cockpit-like dashboards that display how deep an excavator has gone inside the earth.
The smallest one in its stable can set you back by Rs 30 lakh. Compare this with the most expensive among local brands and of much higher horsepower which costs around Rs 40 lakh.
Brand Lamborghini has been in India since 2000, though not a single tractor has been sold yet. “Till now we were making the Lamborghini tractor as well as its engine separately, and shipping out to Australia, Southeast Asia, parts of Africa, and Europe,” says Sharma. Globally, around 3,000 Lamborghini tractors are sold annually.
India is one of three locations outside Europe where Lamborghini tractors are manufactured. Same Deutz-Fahr has a state-of-the-art factory spread over 35 acres at Ranipet, a two-hour drive from Chennai, which is home to the world’s top four tractor brands, including Lamborghini. Now it plans to invest Rs 400 crore on the 500-people unit in the next three to four years as it readies to sell 12 Lamborghinis a year.
