Something people don’t tell you about becoming a car reviewer is how many of your conversations sound like forum threads. I say I like Mazda Miatas. Someone says they’re underpowered. I say modern Porsche 911s rock. They say air-cooled is king. I say the 1,001-horsepower, $600,000, hybrid Lamborghini Revuelto is revolutionary. They say: “Hybrid?!”
That’s right. Lamborghinis are hybrids now, and they’re all better for it.
2024 Lamborghini Revuelto
Lamborghini’s halo supercars are in a new, hybrid era. The automaker’s old halo cars, the Huracán and Aventador, are gone, replaced by two new ones: the Temerario and Revuelto. The Temerario makes 907 hp from its hybrid system, a twin-turbocharged V-8 engine paired with three electric motors. The Revuelto has a naturally aspirated, 6.5-liter V-12, which makes 814 hp and has a 9,500-rpm redline. The car’s three electric motors take it to 1,001 hp total, making it the most powerful production Lamborghini road car in history.
Enthusiasts generally don’t like hybrids, and a lot of that goes back to the turn of the century. The Toyota Prius arrived on the US market in 2000 and became synonymous with hybridization, but that was a time of cheap gas, big cars, and lots of excess. In American culture, the Prius thus became the tree-hugger car: the thing people bought when they cared more about the Earth than their self-image. In those days, that was a social crime punishable far beyond American shores. Just ask Jeremy Clarkson.
Twenty years later, I still hear people’s aversion to hybrids. Every hybrid is a Prius, and every “Prius” is boring. (Both untrue.) The 2024 Toyota Land Cruiser I just drove? Prius. The hybrid Lexus LC? Prius. The Revuelto? Prius. It’s reductionist, and reductionism prevents people from experiencing new—and sometimes great—things in life. Hybrids are one of them.
The Revuelto is a genius supercar. It starts in an all-electric mode called Città, which means “city” in Italian. It can run as an EV for a handful of miles, letting you leave neighborhoods or parking lots during quiet hours without being that obnoxious supercar driver. (Also, the Revuelto’s electric power isn’t fast on a 4,000-pound car, but it isn’t negligent. It’s almost 200 hp!)
Then, when you’re away from the sleeping masses, you turn a dial to Strada (“street”) mode and cold-start your V-12. It’s all the joy of a loud engine with none of the late-night or early-morning guilt.
Lamborghinis are hybrids now, and they’re all better for it.
On the road, the Revuelto has four drive modes: Città, Strada, Sport, and Corsa (race). Those can be paired interchangeably with three powertrain modes: Recharge, Hybrid, and Performance. Recharge mode goes for the most energy recovery to recharge the battery; Hybrid mode boosts efficiency; and Performance mode gets the most performance possible out of its electric and gas power sources.
On the road and the track, the Revuelto’s performance is what I want from a modern supercar. It's got the convenience, in-town politeness, and power boost of a hybrid, yet all the emotion of a snarling V-12. The sensation of speed is visceral but not uncomfortable, and every input—steering, brakes, acceleration—is pinpoint. The idea of a 1,000-horsepower supercar on track can be daunting, but the Revuelto gives you immediate confidence.
Car enthusiasts also don’t love digitization, but the Revuelto will sell you on it. Sure, you love the nostalgia and authenticity of analog gauges. But in the Revuelto, the digital gauges actually help you take care of the car: They display a progressive redline, which sits at around 6,000 rpm when cold and creeps toward the full 9,500 as the car warms up.
I’ve driven plenty of supercars where an owner tells me to go easy until I leave their neighborhood because they’re guesstimating how long it takes for the car to safely warm up. But there’s no guessing with the Revuelto’s digital gauges. As soon as the car is ready to hit 9,500 rpm, it’ll tell you.
The only nitpicks I had about the Revuelto’s driving experience had nothing to do with the hybrid system or digitization of the car. The first was that the Revuelto is a big car, and it feels like one on the road. Its size and length are apparent on a tight street corner, but the handling is so good—and most tracks are so wide—that it isn’t an issue there. The second issue is that when the steering wheel turns, the paddle shifters stay in place, making them harder to reach if you need an upshift or downshift while turning.
The Revuelto won’t be the cutting-edge of hybrid technology forever, just like the decade-old McLaren P1 hybrid now has a $160,000 battery upgrade. But Lamborghini told Motor1 that the current Revuelto battery covers eight years and/or 100,000 miles worldwide, and that the company “is always planning to provide a state-of-the-art battery according to the legislation of the time.” If the rules change, so will the Revuelto’s battery—ideally making the car more timeless than its modern hybrid technology.
The Lamborghini Revuelto isn’t like Lamborghinis of the past. It’s high-tech, hybrid, and more powerful than ever. But some car enthusiasts can’t get over those first two points. They want supercars to be loud, rough, and inconvenient, because that’s all they know.
But everyone has to leave their comfort zone eventually—and if you’re going to leave, you might as well do it in a Lamborghini.
