The long-awaited successor to the Lamborghini Aventador arrives as the Italian marque’s first step into the electric age – albeit with the bulk of the Revuelto’s 1000bhp being drawn from a new 6.5-litre V12 powerplant.
The firm’s maiden plug-in hybrid supercar, originally codenamed LB744, is therefore the most potent Lamborghini in the car maker’s history and it delivers some eye-watering numbers: 2.5sec 0-62mph, sub-7.0sec 0-124mph and a top speed of more than 217mph.
This is down to a trio of 147bhp electric motors – one integrated into the gearbox and a pair at the front, one powering each wheel – that supplement the 814bhp V12.
Keeping this V12 was a battle, given the Volkswagen Group’s widespread move to downsizing and turbocharging, according to Lamborghini’s former chief technical officer, Maurizio Reggiani, who led the early development of the Revuelto.
Yet it was one that Lamborghini was able to win due to both overwhelming support from existing customers and the use of hybridisation to cut emissions.
Driving an all-new eight-speed dual-clutch gearbox mounted behind it, the new engine – turned 180deg compared with the Aventador's – is 17kg lighter than the one in the car it replaces but makes more power, delivering 814bhp at a searing 9250rpm, with the limiter not calling time until 250rpm later.
The battery pack sits in what would previously have been considered the transmission tunnel and stores a modest 3.8kWh of charge - good for an electric-only range of around six miles. The fact that the charging port is within the front luggage compartment suggests it is not intended to be plugged in very often.
However, the V12 can directly recharge the battery pack through the rear motor in a process that's claimed to take just six minutes.
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I'm sure it sounds epic, that the engineering is amazin, but it just looks like (yet another) Aventador special.
Disappointing.
It looks like the company that makes Golfs and Tiguans and Polos styled a supercar. Wait...