Automobili Lamborghini may be synonymous with Italian fast luxury sports cars, but now it’s creating an item a little less opulent and a lot more lifesaving.
The car manufacturer has transformed departments of its production plant in Sant’Agata Bolognese to produce surgical face masks and protective plexiglas shields in a desperate attempt to flatten the curve.
Masks will be donated to the Sant’Orsola-Malpighi Hospital in Bologna to be used in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
“During this emergency, we feel the need to make a concrete contribution,” Automobili Lamborghini Chairman and CEO Stefano Domenicali says. “The Sant’Orsola-Malpighi Hospital is an institution with which we have had a collaborative relationship for years, through both professional consultancy in promoting programs to protect our workers’ health, and in research projects.”
Lamborghini’s saddlery departments usually create interiors and speciality customisation for the luxury cars but are now responsible for producing 1,000 masks a day.
The medical shields will be manufactured by 3D printers within the carbon fibre production plant where 200 of the shields will be donated daily.
The process, which is taking place in collaboration with the University of Bologna, will be overseen by the Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences before the products are delivered to hospitals in need.
“We will win this battle together by working in union, supporting those who are at the forefront of fighting this pandemic every day,” – Stefano Domenicali
Italy is one of the hardest hit COVID-19 nations in the world with 132,547 cases and 16,523 deaths. Currently, the only other countries with more confirmed cases are the US with 368,241 and Spain with 136,675, according to Johns Hopkins COVID-19 Map.
In late March, Lamborghini announced it had shut down car manufacturing while the world battled the pandemic, with plans to restart at “the right moment”.
“This measure is an act of social responsibility and high sensibility towards our people, in the extraordinary situation in which we find ourselves right now in Italy and which is also evolving abroad due to the worldwide spread of the coronavirus,” Stefano said last month.
To showcase its support for Italians during the novel coronavirus emergency, Lamborghini lights up its heritage headquarters in Sant’Agata Bolognese with its national flag colours – green, white and red.
“We will win this battle together by working in union, supporting those who are at the forefront of fighting this pandemic every day,” Stefano says.
