Lamborghini, the model that began making supercars to compete with Ferrari 60 years in the past, is beginning a brand new period. Steeped in a historical past of loud and highly effective V8, V10, and V12 engines, the Raging Bull has launched its first “excessive efficiency electrified car,” a hybrid known as Revuelto.
Whereas watered-down efficiency could also be a risk for some mass-produced vehicles, that’s not going to fly for Lamborghini. As a substitute of backing all the way down to a smaller engine and tacking on an electrical motor, the model opted to connect two motors to the entrance and one to the again and matched them to a brand new V12, the lightest one the automaker has ever constructed. Then Lamborghini whipped up a recipe for a battery that regenerates so rapidly that it by no means will get all the best way all the way down to zero, and added a plug-in port for good measure.
All in, the system provides as much as an astonishing complete of 1,001 horsepower and greater than 800 pound-feet of torque. That formally makes it probably the most highly effective plug-in hybrid in the marketplace. Lamborghini began from the bottom up for this automotive, fashioning a brand new carbon fiber construction (image a Lego base plate upon which brick homes are constructed) made to be as mild as doable. After which it went to work ensuring the Revuelto was as technologically superior because it may very well be with its electronics.
To prime it off, the Revuelto can also be registering a big emissions discount, which Lamborghini says tops 30 p.c over its predecessor, the Aventador. For a supercar, it is a huge deal. The Revuelto is able to about 6 miles in all-electric vary, which loud-engine-averse neighbors will recognize because the automotive pulls away in silence.
Can the Revuelto nonetheless carry the model’s identify with pleasure, at the same time as a hybrid? Right here’s what we expect after driving it on the Autodromo Vallelunga monitor in Rome, Italy.
Melding design and engineering
Hybrids are sizzling proper now, as are EVs. However Lamborghini has not gone mushy and bent to the market, says the model’s chief technical officer, Rouven Mohr. The small-batch automaker has created a hybrid that harnesses electrical energy with out diluting the automotive’s core energy, and that’s no small feat.
“To us, hybrid doesn’t imply sacrificing efficiency,” Mohr says.
Mohr, alongside together with his crew and the stylings of head of design Mitja Borkert, began with the V12 engine as a centerpiece. Lamborghini followers equate the sound of its iconic powerplant with the total expertise, and erasing that a part of the model’s DNA wasn’t an possibility, Mohr emphasizes.
Borkert additionally went to work making a physique form that evokes ghosts of fashions previous. After commissioning 17 exploratory fashions that stuffed up his studio, Borkert took inspiration from Lamborghini’s Countach and Diablo, together with components from fighter jets and Ducati superbikes. He raised the roof and added extra legroom than the Avendator, the Revuelto’s predecessor, making it simpler to get out and in.
[Related: The new Lamborghini Revuelto is a powerful hybrid beast]
Together with a riot of Y-shaped designs repeated all through the automotive on the headlamps and on the sprint, Borkert prompt a gap that leaves the engine bay uncovered. Not solely does it look cool, he says, it serves an necessary objective: pure engine cooling. Lamborghini additionally opted to implement an extended, skinny battery that’s simply cooled from the surface to the middle; warmth administration is a key issue for efficiency.
Tire-maker Bridgestone contributed to the Revuelto by creating bespoke efficiency Potenza Sport tires with extensive footprints and grippy tread, particularly the top-level possibility that’s equally succesful on the highway as they’re on the monitor.
“It’s not a straightforward automotive to suit tires,” Mohr says. “It weighs extra [than the Aventador] and the facility profile is big.”
Lamborghini zooms in on expertise
Lamborghini might have been seen extra for its muscle and brawn than its brains prior to now, however that’s altering, as nicely. The brand new Revuelto options clever torque distribution that balances the burden exactly backward and forward and entrance to again in order that cornering feels planted.
Aventador fans might say the Revuelto loses the uncooked fringe of its older sibling, however after a day on the monitor, I say the brand new setup polishes the diamond. Even hurling the automotive towards the nook after a panoramic straightaway, I by no means felt as if I might lose management. The large carbon ceramic brakes gave the hybrid the stopping energy it wanted and gave me the boldness to push it.
Plus, the infotainment system improve is one of the best I’ve seen in a Lamborghini, outfitted with Alexa connectivity and a set of widgets on the modest display screen that may be rearranged and shared with the passenger on their very own display screen.
The actual take a look at is on the highway and the monitor. Whereas Lamborghini says it isn’t pursuing the crown for the quickest automotive on the planet (Mohr wryly says the race for finest lap instances within the supercar world is a “little bit crowdy” in the intervening time), it’s nonetheless lightning fast. However one of the best half is the texture of the drivetrain, which is totally seamless between the V12 and its electrical helpers. Urgent the accelerator down in Corsa (monitor) mode and attending to 150 miles per hour on a straightaway is ridiculously easy and fast. Prime pace within the new supercar is 350 kilometers per hour (about 218 miles per hour).
Lamborghini is wanting towards the long run with the Revuelto, and it’s wanting excellent. The model has been logging document gross sales, and with an all-electric idea—the Lanzador—on the desk and a plug-in Urus SUV confirmed, it’s not wanting again.
