It won’t be long before your Lamborghini can be plugged in.
Lamborghini, a luxury Italian sports car manufacturer, has unveiled its first supercar with a charging port, marking the end of a half-century of solely gasoline-powered V12 cars dating back to the brand’s earliest models.
In addition to its V12 gasoline engine, the Lamborghini Revuelto’s plug-in hybrid status allows it to run on three electric motors. The combined power of these two systems is 1,001 horsepower; the car’s Spanish name means “scrambled” in English.
A range of driving experiences, from loud and viciously punchy to smooth and silent, will be available in the car, the price of which has not yet been announced. There are a total of thirteen available driving modes. Low-speed, front-wheel-drive cruising will be electric-only, but aggressive track driving will make full use of the V12 and electric motors.
Everything About The New Car
Lamborghini announced that everything about the new car is brand new, down to the gas engine that was designed for it. The company was founded in Sant’Agata Bolognese, Italy, in 1963 and maintains its headquarters there.
The placement of the engine is also different from one vehicle to another. The transmission used to be located between the two seats in previous Lamborghini V12 models, the Countach being the first, with the engine powering the front wheels. From there, the vehicle’s propulsion was transferred to the rear wheels (or all four wheels, in more recent models) via rotating driveshafts.
The Revuelto’s engine is mounted in the back so that space can be used for batteries. This novel setup answers a puzzle by ensuring that the vehicle’s ideal weight distribution of 44% over the front wheels and 56% over the back wheels is maintained despite the addition of heavy batteries. The Revuelto’s gasoline engine and electric motor are mated to an eight-speed transmission that sends all of their combined output to the vehicle’s rear wheels.
More Specs
All-wheel drive is provided by two additional electric motors, one for each of the front wheels. Torque vectoring, in which different amounts of power are sent to each front wheel for optimal cornering and traction, is made possible by the vehicle’s two front-wheel motors.
The Reveulto can be charged similarly to an electric car by plugging in its battery pack, allowing for a limited range of all-electric propulsion. Lamborghini, however, did not reveal the car’s range in terms of battery power alone.
When the car’s batteries run out of juice, it will function like a conventional hybrid, seamlessly switching between electric and gasoline power, or a combination of the two, as needed.
The batteries can be charged in several different ways, including during braking and by occasionally drawing power from the gas engine.
The rear structures of the car are made of aluminum alloys, but the rest of the body is made of carbon fiber to keep the car’s weight down. The new V12 engine for the Aventador supercar is lighter than the previous engine by 37.5 pounds.
Plug-in hybrids will cost more
Lamborghini’s other supercar, the Huracán, is powered by a V10 engine and will get a plug-in hybrid replacement soon. Unlike the supercars, the Urus SUV from Lamborghini will not be completely phased out in favor of a new mode when it is converted to a plug-in hybrid.
CEO Stephan Winkelmann has stated that all of the new plug-in hybrid models will be significantly more expensive than the models they replace. Lamborghini’s last V12 model, the Aventador, started at around $500,000 in price.
The V12 Revuelto and the new V10-powered Huracan will share the same production line at Lamborghini’s headquarters, according to Winkelmann. These days, the identical factory building houses two assembly lines, one each for the two models.
More components between the new supercars will be standard than between the current generation. However, he added that sharing components and assembly lines won’t be enough to mitigate the price hike brought on by the advent of plugin hybrid power.
Because of its much larger production volume compared to the supercars, the Urus SUV will continue to be assembled in a facility of its own.
Lamborghini’s next new model, a fully electric car expected to be unveiled in 2028, could be built in the space freed up by moving the plug-in hybrid supercars to a single assembly line. That version won’t be a two-seater like most supercars, but a family vehicle.
Winkelmann has stated that an all-electric Lamborghini is impossible with today’s battery technology because the vehicle would be too heavy.
