Lamborghini’s first step towards electrification is here in the Revuelto, with an incandescent plug-in hybrid, V12 hypercar, complete with three electric motors due here later this year.
If you’ve spent your life making mid-engined, V12 hypercars and political momentum forces electrification on you, you could do worse than what Lamborghini has done.
Seriously quick, hitting 60mph in around 2.4 seconds, 124mph in seven summoning 1001hp with all of its motors running, the Lamborghini Revuelto is a hypercar first and a planet-friendly mode of transportation a long, long way second.
Because instead of making a fast, primarily electric car, Lamborghini has done the opposite, and used the strong points of the electric motor characteristics to make the gasoline-powered V12 even better.
It has a tiny 3.8kWh battery pack that can run the Revuelto on pure electric power for just 12km, but the trick is that the plug-in hybrid never runs out of battery, even after a dozen laps of a racetrack.
That’s because the Lamborghini uses its three electric motors - one down the back, attached to the new eight-speed, dual-clutch transmission, and one for each front wheel - for handling finesse and regeneration as much as it does for extra speed.
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With a bigger cabin, a friendly transmission, lots of luggage space (relatively), the stupendous performance comes almost as a bonus.
What does the 2024 Lamborghini Revuelto cost?
The base price in the US for the Lamborghini Revuelto is $604,363, and that’s without asking for any options. And no Lamborghini buyer accepts a dead-stock supercar.
There are many ways to make that price tag rise higher, and one of those is to option the larger 21-inch front and 22-inch rear wheels and tires. These run-flat Bridgestone Potenza tires are designed to give you a better look, but at the expense of about 2lb per corner for the tire alone, and they have less grip than the standard rubber. And they don’t do much for the ride quality, either.
Another way to spend more is to get lost in the 400 water-based paint colours and more than 40 interior trim codes - and then there are the totally custom ideas that so many customers ask Lamborghini to create for them.
The 2024 Lamborghini Revuelto is safer
The Lamborghini Revuelto hypercar won’t be crashed by NCAP (see above) but it’s likely to be safer than any Lamborghini hypercar before it.
The Aventador it replaces used a carbon-fiber tub, with aluminum subframes at both ends, but the Revuelto mates its carbon-fiber center tub with a carbon-fiber front end and full carbon-fiber crush cones up front.
It saves 20% in weight while, Lamborghini claims, doubling the crush strength.
They moved the rope-like carbon-fiber side-impact protection system out of the Aventador’s tub and integrated it into the doors, making the car easier to get in and out of, by removing the huge sill that stood in the way.
It also has front and side airbags for both seats and takes on new sensor tech that not only gives it active cruise control but also rear cross-traffic alert, lane-departure warning and a lane-change warning that covers the blind spots.
Any crashing will have to get past the immense grip of the standard 265/35 ZR20 Bridgestone Potenza Sport rubber up front and 345/30 ZR21s at the rear, and the 16.1-inch carbon-ceramic front brake discs, with their 10-piston calipers.
Other 2024 Lamborghini Revuelto hypercar technology
With its carbon-fiber tub and front crash structure, you could be forgiven for thinking the Revuelto would be lighter than the car it replaces.
It isn’t.
It could have been, but for the electrification, even with the new eight-speed, dual-clutch transmission adding 88lb to the machine.
Where the Aventador was a traditional Lamborghini V12, with the gearbox reaching in to the passenger compartment, the Revuelto switches things up.
That space is given over to the fast-discharge battery pack, while the transmission sits behind the engine. There are also three electric motors and their power electronics to deal with, and they added around 440lb, in a car that sits at 3906lb.
At 40,000Nm per degree, the Revuelto’s body is 25% stiffer, despite the tub weighing considerably less.
It has also simplified things by shedding the in-board, pushrod front suspension for more conventional double wishbones at each corner, propped up with Magnaride damping for more comfort, and it also integrates a lift feature.
How’s the V12 in the 2024 Lamborghini Revuelto?
The Lamborghini Revuelto’s powertrain is a team effort of three electric motors and a single, 6.5-liter V12, but the trick is the way Lamborghini decided to deploy its different power options, and why
Effectively, the electric motors are here to support the V12 when they need to, help out with cornering muscle and to regenerate, but it’s more complex than that.
It has more straight-line performance, obviously, because it adds three x 148hp onto the 814hp from the naturally aspirated V12, and they also give the car all-wheel drive and the ability to almost infinitely vary the torque from wheel to wheel.
The V12 delivers 535lb-ft of torque, with the power peak hitting at an astonishing 9250rpm. While the front e-motors have 148hp and 258lb-ft of torque each, the rear has the same power peak, but only 111lb-ft of torque. It can’t use all of the electric motors at peak output at the same time, because the battery deploys a maximum of 140kW at a time.
Its key way to keep the battery charged at all times is to deploy the rear motor as a traction control system. Yes, whenever the driver threatens to light up the rear tyres, it turns the rear motor to regeneration, and uses that energy to charge the battery, even at full throttle.
We did 16 laps of Italy’s Vallelunga circuit, and never drained the battery completely.
While it uses its front Yasa axial-flux motors directly on one wheel each, it puts the combined efforts of the V12 and the rear e-motor through the custom-designed, eight-speed, dual-clutch transmission.
Though Lamborghini hasn’t released economy figures yet (and nobody will read them when they do), it is claimed to be 35% better than the Aventador.
What is the 2024 Lamborghini Revuelto like to drive?
For as long as there have been Lamborghinis, there have been V12 engines. It’s a rite of passage at the top end of the Lamborghini line, dating back to its very first car.
Now, though, Lamborghini has found ways to make the V12 even better, without even needing to use the V12.
With the electric motors using their natural torque thump to free the V12 from that drudgery at the low-end of the rev range, Lamborghini re-engineered the big engine to rev high and hard, and the power peak doesn’t even arrive until 9250rpm.
That makes the V12 pretty unforgettable, and the Revuelto is easily the fastest Lamborghini we’ve driven - it is 20mph quicker into and through the first fast sweeper at Vallelunga than its precedessor.
But the prevailing impression is not what we expected. From the Countach to the Diablo, from the Murcielago to the Aventador, all of Lamborghini’s V12s have kept mere mortal drivers away from their ultimate handling limits with a mix of awe, intimidation, fear and heavy controls.
The Revuelto does not. At all.
It’s absurdly fast and loud, but it’s also as consistent and agile as an Miata, and not much more intimidating.
It take just two or three corners to realise, with utter glee, that this is the first access-all-areas Lamborghini hypercar.
The grip is absurd, and you can feel the three electric motors working to save you. Come in too hot and turn anyway, and the front end nibbles away almost invisibly to keep you on the line you want, with one front electric motor slowing the inside wheel and the other speeding up the outside one, until you’re perfectly on line.
It can be adjusted on the gas pedal, too, with brilliantly quick engine response, or on the steering or on the brakes and the balance is so perfect that it just does what you ask it to.
This is very much new territory for Lamborghini.
It’s a car that never, ever feels like it will bite, and does, actually, feel as though it could be lived with every day, especially with the silken shifts from the new transmission.
What is the 2024 Lamborghini Revuelto hypercar like inside?
There’s a big step forward inside the Lamborghini Revuelto as well as underneath, and it’s highlighted by the sheer space on offer, with 3.3 inches more legroom.
There’s a 12.3-inch instrument screen for the driver and a 9.1-inch version for the passenger, in a strip in the dashboard, and there’s a swipe option so both the driver and passenger can move functions from the 8.4-inch vertical central screen to their own.
But the overriding impression is of space, and it can swallow two carry-on bags up front (along with the charging socket) and a golf bag or a couple of sports bags behind the seats.
The steering wheel is comfortable, but too busy, with four rotary knobs for selecting the driving modes, lifting the nose and raising and lowering the wing, as well as cranking up launch control.
It’s spacious, and most of the time the comfort seats will do the job nicely, but it now boasts so much lateral grip that even infrequent enthusiastic driving demands the grippier sports seats.
There’s a cupholder on the passenger side of the dash and a tray to store phones (with two USB-C sockets) as well.
Should you buy a Lamborghini Revuelto hypercar?
There was nagging worry that increasing the accessibility of the V12 Lamborghini’s handling would emasculate the Revuelto by removing Lamborghini’s ingrained fear factor. And it hasn’t. It’s liberated it.
The Revuelto is finally a V12 Lamborghini to be thrashed, played with and enjoyed.
It’s practical, the gearbox is smooth, the frighteningly complex blend of electrical and mechanical stuff underneath works seamlessly and it’s by far the best Lamborghini we’ve ever driven.
In fact, it’s probably the best supercar out there today.
Specs panel (combustion engine)
2024 Lamborghini Revuelto coupe at a glance:
Price: $604,363
Available: late 2023
Powertrain: 6.5-litre V12 naturally aspirated petrol
V12 output: 814hp/535lb-ft
Electric power: Two front Axial Flux e-motors (148hp/258lb-ft each), one rear e-motor (148hp/111lb-ft)
Combined output: 1001hp/(Nm not available)
Transmission: eight-speed dual-clutch
Battery: 3.8kWh lithium-ion
EV Range: 12km (WLTP)
Fuel: 12.6L/100km (WLTP)
CO2: 309g/km (WLTP)
Safety rating: Not tested
