I Love That Lamborghini’s New 1,001-HP Revuelto Is A Plug-In Hybrid

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.