The V12-powered Revuelto is Lamborghini’s first-ever plug-in hybrid, and order books are already filling up…
Launched as Lamborghini’s first plug-in hybrid, and its first series-production hybrid at that, the Revuelto marks the beginning of a new era for Sant’Agata. Following its dynamic debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed and the start of full-scale production, Lamborghini has announced that the model has already sold out for two years, with buyers now set to wait until at least 2025 for fulfilment of a new order. Pricing is yet to be confirmed.
Next year Lamborghini will begin to hybridise its entire product range, with a target of a 50 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions by 2025 and more than 80 per cent by the end of the decade. The Revuelto is planned to continue into the early ’30s, before which the first all-electric Lambos are expected to have been revealed. In the meantime, the new model celebrates the V12 with gusto. To the extent that it’s entirely exposed in the centre of the Revuelto’s coverless rear deck. ‘We don’t know if we can have the V12 engine again, so we decided to celebrate this piece of art,’ smiles senior designer Manuele Amprimo. ‘All of the shapes at the rear of the car celebrate the engine.’
‘This car has to reposition the brand for the next decade,’ Winkelmann announces. ‘We decided on the naturally aspirated V12 and plug-in hybrid powertrain: if you look back in history, this was the engine that made the template for us. But things change, the world is developing, so we have to adapt.’
Leaked patent images gave some of the design game away before the Revuelto’s unveiling, but it’s far more impactful in person than 2D drawings could foretell. The ypsilon theme of the front running light graphics (first used on 2017’s Terzo Millennio concept and subsequently on the Sián) is echoed at the rear, on the sides, and inside the cockpit too. ‘The idea of the Y shape was there from the beginning,’ Mitja Borkert explains.
‘I understood this is a signature of Lamborghini and I need to use it in a very bold way.’ The headlights are hidden in a deep, colour-break recess, inspired partly by motorcycle design, and while there are deliberate nods to Countach, Diablo and Murciélago in the overall shape and scissor doors, the Revuelto has its own personality.
The new car is the product of ‘the biggest design ideation we’ve ever done,’ Borkert continues. ‘We filled up this room with third-scale models. The idea of the hexagon exhaust pipe – when I saw that in one of the models I said, “This is the one.” The boldest visualisation of the engine and the exhaust. At that time I was also thinking, “When all cars are becoming electric, is the exhaust some kind of dinosaur theme?” But in the end we decided to celebrate the engine and those exposed exhaust pipes.’