Image: Newspress/Lamborghini via AFP Relaxnews
Nobody needs to be a super-sleuth these days to guess the direction a motor manufacturer is going to be going in over the next few years. If it doesn’t have an SUV in its lineup it soon will have, and no matter what type of automaker it is, electrification is also going to figure in future plans.
Lamborghini has already gone down the SUV route with the stunning Urus, and it appears hybridization is next on the Italian supercar manufacturer’s list of things to do, possibly with a future version of the legendary Aventador.
Speaking to Motor Authority at the Detroit Auto Show last week, Lamborghini’s head of research and development, Maurizio Reggiani, said “we must decide what will be the future of the super sports car in terms of electric contribution.”
Some may assume the problem with developing an electrified powertrain for a car like the Aventador would be getting the kind of performance required for such a model, but the likes of the Porsche 918 and McLaren P1 have shown performance isn’t an issue for hybrid supercars. No, the problem is the weight of batteries, which is a particular problem for the Aventador as it already weighs in at a whopping 1,853 kg. In fact, weight is already such an issue with the Aventador that even a dual-clutch gearbox, which would seem like a must-have for a next-generation Aventador, isn’t going to be approved until it justifies the extra weight it brings over the present single-clutch unit.
The Aventador already uses lightweight carbon-fiber for its bodywork, so the developers can’t drop a whole load of weight by changing what the car is made from.
Even so, it’s really just a matter of when rather than if hybridization comes to Lamborghini, and it’s much the same story with turbocharging. Reggiani has already admitted that turbos will get bolted on “sooner or later,” which Lamborghini’s commercial officer Federico Foschini also confirmed last year. The Urus will almost certainly be getting a hybrid powertrain soon, and a next-generation Huracan is likely to go hybrid in 2022.
As Euro 6 emissions aren’t getting less stringent anytime soon, it’s only a matter of time before the Lamborghini flagship has to adopt at least some level of electrification. JB
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