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First look: Lamborghini’s first High-Performance Electrified Vehicle, the Revuelto

Lamborghini’s first V12 series production hybrid lands in Singapore. We take a closer look at the new spaceship-inspired Revuelto.

First look: Lamborghini’s first High-Performance Electrified Vehicle, the Revuelto

The Revuelto (Photo: Lamborghini)

Don’t call it a PHEV. Lamborghini’s first super sports V12 series production hybrid is not your average plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, but an HPEV: A High-Performance Electrified Vehicle, thank you very much.

“The new Revuelto sets the stage for an era of super sports car evolution in the hybridisation phase, and I believe this car is an interpretation of the brand going beyond,” Francesco Scardaoni, Automobili Lamborghini's regional director for Asia Pacific, said at the Singapore launch.

In line with Lamborghini tradition, the Revuelto is named after yet another famous Spanish fighting bull known for its remarkable courage and dominance in Barcelona’s bull-fighting arenas in the 1880s. Revuelto means ‘mixed up’ or ‘scrambled’ in Spanish, in clever reference to the car’s hybrid nature. Elements of its design may draw inspiration from Lamborghini V12 legends of yore (namely, the 1971 Countach prototype, the Diablo and the Murcielago), but make no mistake, the Revuelto represents a quantum leap in engineering; one that will test the Italian automaker’s outer limits in what Lamborghini refers to its very own ‘space race’.

(Photo: Lamborghini)

Yes, the Revuelto’s design is a deliberate attempt to conjure images of spaceships in your mind (Are we even surprised?).

Its shark-nosed front is pretty standard issue Lamborghini, but the stylistic Y-shape daytime running headlights is where it begins to feel a little space-age. Advance towards the rear and marvel at the fully exposed longitudinal engine showcasing the mechanical heart of the Revuelto, which, paired with those hexagonal-shaped exhausts, really signal this is a new-age Lamborghini.

Oh yes, there are the vertically opening scissor doors, too, which always evoke a sense of a terrestrial vehicle about to take flight.

Now the Revuelto is the first Lamborghini to be equipped with a new aviation-inspired monofuselage – an ultra-lightweight integrated carbon fiber structure (10 per cent lighter than the chassis of the retired Aventador) that combines high-performance energy absorption with increased torsional stiffness (25 per cent more than the Aventador) for greater responsiveness and aerodynamics.

Its hybrid architecture is unprecedented in the history of the Raging Bull, and houses the new L545 engine, said to be the lightest and most powerful 12-cylinder engine ever made by Lamborghini. That’s a naturally aspirated 6.5-litre whopper pumping out 825 CV (814 hp) at 9250 revs per minute, and unleashing maximum torque of 725 Nm at 6750 rpm.

Then, there’s the addition of three electric motors that altogether boost power delivery for a staggering total of 1015 CV (1001 hp). These enable the Revuelto to be driven in pure electric mode if desired, thus reducing CO2 emissions by up to 30 per cent compared with the Aventador Ultimae.

The Revuelto can rocket up to 100 km/h in a heart-stopping 2.5 seconds, and up to 200 km/h in under 7 seconds. (Photo: Lamborghini)

How does this translate onto the tarmac? The four-wheel drive Revuelto can rocket up to 100 km/h in a heart-stopping 2.5 seconds, and up to 200 km/h in under 7 seconds. Top speed exceeds 350 km/h – oh, just the kind of figures that F1 drivers are intimate with.

Also debuting on the Revuelto are three new dedicated driving modes: Recharge, Hybrid and Performance, in addition to Citta (City), Strada, Sport and Corsa modes. It’s yours for about S$2.57 million (excluding COE), but only from 2025, because it’s already sold out for the next two years. Singapore orders for the Revuelto are presently in the double digits, Scardaoni revealed.

(Photo: Lamborghini)
(Photo: Lamborghini)

RECORD SALES, A BRISK ORDER BOOK AND HYBRIDISATION

The supercar manufacturer has enjoyed record sales annually since 2020, and this trend has continued into the first half of 2023.

“The Asian market is solid, it’s robust,” said Scardaoni. “During the pandemic, Lamborghini immediately changed its marketing strategy and thanks to digital marketing, we launched three cars using augmented reality in the digital world, which gave customers the chance to still dream about Lamborghini, even though it was a difficult moment [in time]. So as soon as the [pandemic] restrictions were eased, customers could go to our showrooms and place orders for our cars and we got a tremendous boost in terms of order collection.”

The other factors contributing to the surge in sales include Lamborghini’s five per cent increase in production output, growth in its Ad Personam customisation programme, and an increasingly diverse product mix, as the company goes full throttle into hybridisation.

“This hybridisation will also bring new customers to the brand, especially the young ones, who nowadays won’t even sit at a table to negotiate if the car is not sustainable,” he noted.

Francesco Scardaoni, Automobili Lamborghini's regional director for Asia Pacific. (Photo: Lamborghini)

Already, Lamborghini customer demographics have been drifting younger, with the average age of new owners worldwide currently hovering around 42 years of age. With the Revuelto, however, it’s about 46 years, according to the company. For now.

The year 2024 will therefore mark an important period of transition for the brand, as it prepares to introduce hybrid versions of its best-selling SUV, the Urus, as well as the Huracan, both by the first half of the year.

“This will complete the full hybridisation of our product line so we look forward to next year,” said Scardaoni. 

PURE ELECTRIC, BUT FULLY LAMBORGHINI

The major milestone, however, will come in 2028, when Lamborghini debuts its first fully electric car which, Scardaoni says, will likely follow on closely from the Lanzador, its pure electric concept car newly unveiled during Monterey Car Week in August.

“It will be in a new, unique body type which we call Ultra GT because it’s not a pure GT. From a silhouette point of view, it’s a GT, but underneath, it’s higher [specced] than a GT. But it’s not a crossover as the proportions are different from a crossover,” he said, cryptically.  

As with all supercar and hypercar manufacturers, the biggest challenge in creating the first fully electric Lamborghini will be “making sure that our brand DNA is still visible and recognisable in terms of design, in terms of emotion, and in terms of performance,” Scardaoni said.

“With the hybridisation phase, we have demonstrated that we can keep our soundtrack alive with the V12, because there’s still an internal combustion engine. But when it’s a pure electric car… 2028 onwards will be the real challenge,” he added.

“We don't believe in digitally replicating a V12 sound so we have to find a way to create a sound which is emotional, and which overwhelms our drivers like the V12 soundtrack, but in a different shape [and form]. For sure, it would be a futuristic sound, a spaceship-type sound, something that indicates it's in line with our brand DNA to be always unexpected, but again, recognisable as a Lamborghini.”

Source: CNA/bt
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