These latest climate reports sure are scary. We all need to do our part to help the environment, and that includes being thoughtful about what we drive. Maybe you should consider a gas-sipping hybrid car for your next purchase. Something economical, something practical, something that can run on electricity to cut down on fuel consumption. Like a Prius, maybe, or the new 1,001-horsepower, V12 Lamborghini Revuelto.
Of course it’s good for the environment. It’s a plug-in hybrid, isn’t it?
I can’t say I’ve ever been a huge supercar guy. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had my share of (often extra-legal) fun in the occasional McLaren or Audi R8, but it’s never something I’ve made a personal goal of owning. Not my style. Having said that, I’m getting a huge kick out of what Lamborghini has done with its Aventador replacement.
This is a V12 supercar cranking out four digits of power with a hybrid powertrain, including a plug, and it has an all-electric mode. Plus, it can do some crazy stuff to recharge the battery pack. This is an extremely impressive and modern effort, and it gives Lamborghini an injection of relevance it’ll need in the era we’re going into.
And it’s fast as shit, to use the technical industry term: zero to 60 mph happens in just 2.5 seconds. That’s extra impressive when you consider the porky weight of 3,915 pounds, according to Car and Driver. Yeah, batteries are heavy. Then again, so are V12 engines.
Here’s the deal. The Revuelto packs a 814-hp 6.5-liter V12 that can rev up to 9,500 RPM, three electric motors (two upfront, one in the rear) and an eight-speed DCT. There’s also a 3.8-kWh battery pack that can send up to 187 hp to any of the three motors as needed. Power goes to all four wheels, with the V12 primarily powering the rear ones. Electric torque vectoring is also included as a Lamborghini first, and it has all the goodies you’d expect from this car at this price, including tons of carbon fiber and active aerodynamics.
(Interestingly, it’s only the third Lambo ever to have a transverse rear gearbox. The others were the original supercar, the Miura, and the Essenza SCV12.)
It looks pretty sharp, too. I can’t say the styling is anything groundbreaking. It looks like a Lamborghini. It looks the way people would expect it to. Lambo these days is well past the sleek coupes it made in the 1960s and is dead-set on owning that fighter jet vibe. It’s hard to complain about that, though.
Unlike some hybrid supercars and hypercars, like the Acura NSX or the LaFerrari, this one has a plug as the Porsche 918 and McLaren P1 did. It’s mounted in the engine compartment, so it may not be used all the time; that range could be in the single digits.
All Prius jokes aside, electricity is used primarily in service of speed here, not environmentalism, although the Revuelto’s hybrid setup does mean it apparently cuts CO2 emissions by 30% compared the Aventador it replaces. That’s pretty impressive. Also, that battery pack can be fully recharged by the V12 in just six minutes.
Lamborghini doesn’t even call this car a PHEV, it calls it an HPEV: High-Performance Electrified Vehicle. And some features do seem included to head off possible ICE bans or restrictions in some places, namely Europe, which is cracking down on that stuff. From a press release with emphasis mine below:
Debuting along with the hybrid system are three new dedicated driving modes: Recharge, Hybrid and Performance, to be combined with the Città (City), Strada, Sport and Corsa modes, selectable via the two rotors located on the redesigned steering wheel, for a total of 13 dynamic settings that highlight the Revuelto’s different personalities and potential depending on the situation and the type of road, or track, on which it’s driven.
Città, for example, is the driving mode designed for everyday driving in urban centers, also at zero emissions; if the lithium-ion battery that powers the electric motors needs to be recharged and there are no charging stations available, the V12 intervenes to fully recharge it (Recharge mode) in just a few minutes. This makes it possible, for example, to access historic city centers with emission restrictions in electric mode. The suspension system, traction control and gearbox deliver maximum comfort, just as reduced aerodynamic drag makes Città the most fuel-efficient mode with maximum power limited to 180 CV.
Pretty interesting, right? But I like what I’m seeing here. As more and more governments get hardcore about emissions, it’d be easy for a brand like Lamborghini to just throw in the towel. But this is electrified technology in service of true performance, of incredible speed; and it just so happens to have some tricks up its sleeve to deal with whatever restrictions come its way.
The last NSX felt like a race car engine with a Tesla’s instant-torque EV acceleration on top of it, both happening at the same time. These hybrid supercars and hypercars are brutally fast, and they may have a new standard-bearer here.
No word on pricing yet, but there’s no such thing as a cheap Lamborghini. The outgoing Aventador costs about $500,000 in the U.S. and I think that gives us a decent idea of what to expect. But I’m impressed with this electrified evolution of the Raging Bull supercar, and if anyone’s doubtful, those numbers speak for themselves.
Just the thing for sneaking away from your former-mistress-now-trophy-wife to look for your next mistress.
I’m not saying I don’t like it, but it’s funny how every next thing has to be more shocking than the previous generation. I mean where does this end? Soon enough they will have to include LSD with the SV version to keep the excitement going, and I don’t mean the differential kind.
I’ve seen a lot of the better part of the community, so I thought the lowest common denominators of the Jalopnik crowd wouldn’t make it over here, but I guess I was wrong. All it takes is the scary “Climate” word.
I’m hoping with the new comment system the community will get stronger, it is a massive improvement!
This is fun, now i can casually add “…and my Volt is pretty much a de-tuned Lambo” right after telling people how my ’94 Fleetwood is just a big Corvette
187HP…. from 3 motors
Stop falling for this chicken little B.S. man made climate change is a hoax, they couldn’t have been more wrong all these years. AOC said 8 years ago that the world would end in 12 years. Not a damn thing has changed in the last 8, is everything going to go bonkers in the next 4? You’re too young to remember the 70s when global cooling was the big thing, that we were going to head into an ice age and half the world population would die in the next 25 years. Well folks, that was 40-50 years ago.
Dude was hanging out with AOC back when she was waiting tables. Impressive.
The “global cooling” conjecture wasn’t supported by the science of the time. Scientists were already concerned with global warming in the 70s. And you’d be hard-pressed to find anything with even the veneer of reason that claimed half the population was going to die in an ice age.
Climate change is well-supported. It’s happening, and bitching about people telling you about it won’t change that. If we’re lucky, it’ll be like acid rain and the hole in the ozone, where we fixed the issues causing them and people got to forget about them.
Fuck you’re so dumb, die quick please.
Wow, OK, should they bury my in my V8 Raptor?
It’s pronounced “Rebuelto”
https://youtu.be/4Jy7iO6WXqM
Although this goes against the thoughts of many here, I love the design of this thing. Then again, the Aventador is my favorite model that Lamborghini has ever put out, nailing the jet fighter-meets-car look that Lambo has been evolving for decades. The Countache may have been on my wall as a kid, but the Aventador is the one I would own if I had the means.
agreed, i think the aventador is their best design yet, closely followed by the hurracan then countach.
Urraco, Silhouette, Jalpa were also transverse. This is fine, I guess. I think painting some of the black body color would improve it—the front especially—and I’d like to see what it would look like if that side intake was divided at the join of the two forms by that character line in the door coming out just a little farther to connect the rear quarter panel. Don’t know if it would look better or not, but I’m curious, just not enough to PS it myself.
“Maybe you should consider a gas-sipping hybrid car for your next purchase. Something economical, something practical, something that can run on electricity to cut down on fuel consumption.”
I, uh, hmmmm. Maybe next time.
Let’s all take a second to acknowledge that translated, this car is called the Lamborghini Scramble (or Scrambled).
https://youtu.be/0YRNQSb_AHs
Chef’s kiss emoji!
Boy, Toyota really upped their Prius design.
I think it’s fuckin ugly.
Honestly, I’m so tired of hearing about the populist “we must all sacrifice” drivel. Can we just talk about cars?
The climate change regulations are going to shape car culture significantly over the years to come. You can’t really talk about new cars without considering that impact.
If it makes you feel any better, at least this is something where the very wealthy are being encouraged to go hybrid. I’d rather see them stop taking private jets, but at least it is something.
STICK TO CARS !!!
/s
this is an article about a car
I’d love to see this hogging a charger outside a Wal-Mart
On the off-chance I get one to test, that will absolutely happen
I think it is time for Lambo to update their design language. the sharp crease stealth fighter thing was exactly what Lambo needed when they first came out with it. after all, every lambo should make you spit out your coffee in shock the first time you see it.
they should be startlingly different, poster worthy cars.
but I think they have reached the end of this design path, the last several new designs are largely indistinguishable (like basically every McLaren looks like a 650 with some minor updates)
they need to find a new and differently shocking design language.
I’ve been thinking the same for a while. It’s odd to say, but the Aventador just looked blah to me anymore. This one ups the visual interest, but it’s arguable as to whether that’s a good thing.
The Asterion concept and the Countach both had me hoping they would go down a ‘modernized-classic’ path, but nope. Just an iterative approach to their current design language (that also looks like a C8 and an Aventador had a baby).
Edit: Because I can edit now! Yay!
+1 xould love something miura shaped
Yep, I said it over on The Drive, this car looks too much like a special edition Aventador than a new car, and yes, that includes cars not called Aventadors but basically are, like the new Countach.
Hard agree (Hardigree)! I loved the Aventador, but it seems like every Lamborghini after seems like a variation of that core design, which you could argue goes all of the way back to the Gallardo. Maybe Lamborghini can hop on the retro-futuristic bandwagon before people start disliking that.
Someone should come up with a graphic of different white Lamborghinis in a grid to show how they all look the same :). I personally haven’t paid enough attention enough to put name to model on any post-Countach Lamborghini (despite watching Hoovie’s Garage).
I’m trying to imagine a much younger me staring at a Countach or Diablo and finding out that some day Lamborghini would be taking design cues from a Corvette.
I was thinking this when I saw another article earlier. But I didn’t want to say it becasue I thought I was the only one that would think it.
Thanks! now I can’t unsee it
More opportunities for “Pretty sure that’s a Lambo, dude” to live on every time a C8 Z06 rolls by…