Lamborghini Aventador Successor to Get V-12 With Hybrid Power

How can Lamborghini make its outrageous flagship V-12 engine even better? With batteries.

After years of keeping the idea of hybrid power at arms’ length, Automobili Lamborghini will use a V-12 with hybrid-assist as the powerplant for the successor to the Aventador.

Maurizio Reggiani, Chief Technical Officer of Automobili Lamborghini, said emissions and noise regulations are forcing the automaker’s hands somewhat. But Lamborghini is making the best of the situation.

“The successor to the Aventador will be V-12 naturally aspirated. We can add a hybrid or plug-in to respect all the rules of fuel consumption and emissions,” Reggiani said in an interview with Motor Trend during Monterey Car Week, where Lamborghini revealed the Aventador SVJ (pictured).

How would the hybrid system work?

“Maybe we have hybrid boost for turbo-like performance,” Reggiani said. “When I have a tank of energy, I want to use what is best for homologation. Once you fulfill that requirement, the additional energy can be used for performance.

“We have the anima selector, for Strada, Sport, and Corsa driving modes. In Strada, we never use the [battery] energy as a boost [perhaps using hybrid power for EV-only operation in urban centers]. In Sport, we use the electric power in the rear axle with electronic torque vectoring to have more control. And in Corsa, we send the electric boost to the wheel that can best transfer the torque at any speed.”

Using turbos to boost performance likely is a one-off, just for the Urus, Reggiani added.

“If you want to move a car weighing 2.2 tons on every surface, even if it’s gravel or sand, you need an engine that provides huge torque at 1,500 rpm. Only a turbo can provide this. The decision of using a turbo was based on the mission of the car. Supersports cars don’t have this kind of mission,” he said.

Lamborghini may also add a fourth mass-production vehicle to its lineup, Reggiani said. Once Lamborghini gets its assembly processes up to speed with Urus and is confident of its consistent volume, it will consider another volume vehicle.

“When we did Urus, we were consistent with our history, in which the Espada was a real four-seater. If you also look at our history, we had a proper 2+2, which was the Islero,” Reggiani said, without clarifying if such a car would be a smaller SUV, a sedan, or a 2+2 coupe. The next-gen Aventador may not be the only product with electrification in its future, as it was previously rumored that the Huracán’s successor would be a hybrid, as well. Back in 2016, Reggiani also confirmed a plug-in hybrid variant of the Urus was in the works.

 

 

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