Lamborghini Revuelto review

• Overview
• What is it?
• So you didn’t like the Aventador and all its progeny?
• The looks haven’t moved the game on much, have they?
• Is that down to some technical changes underneath?
• Just the one electric motor?
• Hang on, so that’s nearly 450bhp of electric! How much does the V12 develop on top?
• Lots of figures coming at me. Where’s the emozione?
• Right, geek me up buddy! Hit me with some factoids.
• What rivals need to be looking over their shoulders?
• What's the verdict?
• Ferrari SF90 Stradale
• Driving
• What is it like to drive?
• How do you know?
• What’s the big takeaway from the Revuelto?
• So it has the torque it needs?
• So no road driving yet?
• Any drawbacks to it?
• How’s the economy and efficiency?
• Sum it up for us.
• Interior
• What is it like on the inside?
• Is there a boot in the nose?
• Does this mean you notice the hand of VW and Audi more?
• That steering wheel looks complicated.
• Ah yes, screens. How many are we talking? How’s the tech?
• Any other things worth mentioning?
• Buying
• What should I be paying?

Overview

What is it?

A revolutionary Raging Bull. Lamborghini has often felt like the last dinosaur, roaring forlornly in the face of electric’s meteoric impact. No more. The Revuelto has adapted to this new climate. The Aventador replacement, Lamborghini’s biggest beast, is now a plug-in hybrid. It features three electric motors. There is no reverse gear, that’s done electrically. There’s no clumsiness either: the handling is far more sophisticated, so too the electrical integration. The gearbox no longer thrashes your head back and forth like a metaller in a mosh pit. There’s more space in the cabin and – ‘alleluja – the seats are no longer as pious as a church pew, but instead embrace and coddle.

So you didn’t like the Aventador and all its progeny?

We did, but it was a rolling anachronism. It did drama brilliantly, but at the expense of ability. It was the rock band that had the look, the volume and the attitude, but the harmony was lacking. Albeit not from the V12. The closest Lambo got to nodding at the future was the limited edition Sian which threw in a super-capacitor to provide some electrical thrust to smooth out the gearchanges.

The looks haven’t moved the game on much, have they?

We’re with you as far as shape and profile go. The Revuelto could only be a Lamborghini and when we first saw it, it didn’t exactly surprise or shock us. We also remain unconvinced by the sheer amount of open black space at the front – depending on the colour it looks like panels are missing. However, get up close and the detailing brightens the picture considerably. This is a car you’ll happily pore over for hours. The integration of aero elements and cooling necessities is neat and the proportions have changed slightly so it no longer looks so tail heavy.

Is that down to some technical changes underneath?

You are on the ball today. Occupants now have 84mm more cabin length to play with because the gearbox, which has been longitudinally mounted on the front of the longitudinal V12 (nosing between the passengers basically) ever since the transverse-engined Miura, has now been bolted on the back of the engine and mounted transversely.

More importantly, it’s no longer the dreadful ISR single shaft gearbox that felt old even when the Aventador was launched back in 2011, but a brand new eight-speed twin clutch. And there’s an electric motor in there, nestled between engine and gearbox.

Just the one electric motor?

No, there are two more, one for each front wheel. They draw power from a 3.8kWh battery pack (yes, that’s tiny, half the size of the packs fitted to the Ferrari 296 GTB or McLaren Artura) that nestles where the gearbox used to be. That takes half an hour to charge on a 7kW domestic supply. It doesn’t support fast charging, because that needs a DC power inverter which adds weight. The battery also recharges from regen braking or the V12: either of those can have it full in only six minutes, which should buy you 6-8 miles of range. Electric-only front wheels means no bulky 4WD mechanical connection and diffs, just cables and pure torque vectoring. Each motor weighs 18.5kg and delivers 148bhp.

Hang on, so that’s nearly 450bhp of electric! How much does the V12 develop on top?

Doesn’t quite work like that: the battery can’t supply enough instantaneous electricity, but in total the motors can provide 187bhp of help to the 6.5-litre V12.

The L545 engine is the lightest, most powerful 12 cylinder ever made by Lamborghini. And, at 218kg, it’s 17kg lighter than in the final Aventador. It’s been rotated through 180 degrees thanks to the repositioned gearbox (which weighs 193kg – both lighter and faster than the seven-speed transmission in the Huracan), and the headline figures for this nat asp monster are 814bhp at 9,250rpm and 534lb ft at 6,750rpm. Fact: it has fractionally better power density than the Ferrari 812 Competizione at 125bhp/litre.

Lots of figures coming at me. Where’s the emozione?

Um, does 0-62mph in 2.5 seconds and a top speed of over 218mph paint enough of a picture? Yes, we answered your question with yet more figures. So let’s give you a bit more. It’s deeply fast, uses the electric to provide instant initial thrust out of corners – more of a leap, really – but hands over to the V12 as soon as it can.

At no stage does the electric do anything other than support the main event. Well, unless you choose a bit of silent running. There’s no corruption of the main aim here, which is to put the V12 on a pedestal and worship it. It remains the absolute star of the show.

What’s new is how much more fluent and sophisticated the biggest Lamborghini is to drive. The Aventador didn’t have brilliant chassis finesse – its 4WD system was comparatively crude – we worried about how Lamborghini would cope with the integration and complexity of engineering that a plug-in hybrid requires. Well, as you can read in the Driving section, that’s where the transformational leap has come.

Right, geek me up buddy! Hit me with some factoids.

Back to tech and stats, eh? Let’s keep it dense. The Revuelto is underpinned by what Lambo terms a ‘Monofuselage’ – basically a carbon tub that’s 10 per cent lighter than the Aventador’s, yet 25 per cent stiffer, with torsional rigidity rated to 40,000Nm per degree. There’s also a carbon front sub frame which has double the Aventador’s energy absorption, while the rear frame is aluminium, but now with fewer welds.

The chassis supports semi-active suspension, and braking is carbon ceramic with 10-piston front calipers grabbing 410mm discs, and four-piston rear calipers on 390mm discs. Plus there’s regenerative braking on top.

The aerodynamics include an active rear wing that can also be manually controlled by a knob on the steering wheel. The headline figures here are a 61 per cent improvement in drag efficiency over the Aventador, and 66 per cent more downforce. The steering wheel is better organised than ever before and includes tactile knobs on the steering wheel to switch between driving modes (City, Strada, Sport, Corsa) and EV settings (Recharge, Hybrid and Performance). Combine them and there are 13 different dynamic settings to choose from.

Lamborghini claims a dry weight of 1,772kg, which means around 1,900kg with fluids.

What rivals need to be looking over their shoulders?

We’ve mentioned the Artura and 296 GTB, but really they bat in the division below. The key opposition comes in the shape of the Ferrari SF90. Ferrari’s first proper hybrid arrived in 2020 and made the still-controversial decision to swap the V12 for a twin-turbo V8. A near identical 986bhp from a car with, yes, three electric motors, no mechanical reverse gear, 0-62mph in 2.5s, a small battery and some very clever torque vectoring. It was Ferrari proving it could make the tech work and although the 296 GTB has outshone it, it remains a force to be reckoned with. However, to drive, Prancing Horses have traditionally run rings around the Raging Bulls from down the road. We’re not sure that’s going to be the case any more.

Others to think about? McLaren has the 750S arriving soon, but that’s no more than a revitalised 720S – we’re still waiting to find out what happens in hybrid beyond the Artura. And although this fits in below the super-exclusive Paganis, Koenigseggs, GMAs and Bugattis of this world, it’s broadly as quick as any of them.

Lamborghini has not only embraced the complexity of hybrid, but mastered it. The Revuelto never feels anything less than natural to drive. And deeply exciting. The noise and drama from the 6.5-litre V12 is undimmed, the hybrid is only there to support and encourage the best from that masterpiece of an engine.

There’s a level of refinement to the Revuelto that we haven’t previously seen from Lamborghini, it’s a more harmonious car, the suspension is smoother, it’s friendlier to drive. It’s also bigger inside, with better seats (finally!) and actual useful cubbies and load bays. It’s much more practical than an SF90.

Lamborghinis often seem to be looking backwards, pining for the glory days of yore. But here’s one that looks forwards and embraces the future with gusto. Yeah, it’s only got a small battery, electric range is limited, and it’s not doing anything that other brands haven’t already done. But it shines a light down the path for other Lamborghinis to follow. As well as proving that charisma doesn’t have to be dimmed by hybridity. Way to go, Lambo.

Ferrari SF90 Stradale

£376,048

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Driving

Driving

What is it like to drive?

This is Lambo’s halo car, the car that sets the dynamic tone for everything else electrified that will inevitably follow. You can tell immediately that the engineers haven’t just gone through the motions. They’ve kept the character and charisma that makes Lamborghinis such a force of nature to drive, but added a layer of polish and dynamism that is entirely new.

How do you know?

Because the first thing they did was wheel out an Aventador SVJ, and send us out to have a play in that. And it was a lot of fun. Good communication, but quite fighty and moves around a lot through corners. At high speeds there was some twist, pitch and bobble around Nardo’s handling track, and at lower speeds the 4WD’s mechanical differentials were a mite clumsy. You know where you are with it, you’re having a blast, but in 2023 it feels at least a decade out of date.

What’s the big takeaway from the Revuelto?

The punch out of corners. It’s the same with both the SF90 and Porsche’s 918 Spyder as well. That’s the electric advantage, filling the gap before the engine is fully stoked and doing it absolutely instantly. In the 918 you get huge electric thrust before the handover to internal combustion, here it’s less – chiefly because the V12 packs such a punch.

So you feed it in out of a slow corner and feel the electric motors haul the front wheels to negate understeer and keep the line tight. But it’s not blunt force, it’s nuanced, the power evenly and effectively distributed between the wheels. It ensures you basically jet the first 20-30 yards out of the corner, and by that stage the V12 is fully lit.

So it has the torque it needs?

Absolutely. This is acceleration with impact. It’s notably faster than the Aventador SVJ, both in a straight line from low revs, and getting out of corners. But more than that it’s the trust and confidence you have in its manners that sets it apart.

Take the gearbox and brakes. The old gearbox shunted so hard that you were worried it might cause wheels to lock or spin – it did upset mid-corner balance. Now it just fires the shifts through with zero fuss. As for the brakes, one of the big issues for super sports cars is the handover from regen braking to physical pad-on-disc braking. Even Porsche has struggled with this. Not once did we give it a second thought in the Revuelto. That, at least in part, may be because we were only driving on circuit, so using the brakes hard, but aside from them being too sharp at the top of their travel, we found the brakes very reassuring to use. Good firm pedal helps here.

So no road driving yet?

Not at this stage. It’ll be interesting to see how it copes in terms of noise and harshness given the tyre widths – 265/355 front and back, riding on (optional) 21in and 22in alloys. Traditionally Lambos have been pretty wooden and unyielding on road, and given the anti-roll bars are now 11 per cent stiffer at the front and 50 per cent at the rear, things don’t sound too encouraging. However on track the way the dampers controlled the roll was impressive. We suspect it might be more supple than people expect, but still not relaxing. This is perhaps the most red blooded of all supercars, after all.

Any drawbacks to it?

We’d like a little bit more steering weight ideally, but Lambo hasn’t fallen into the trap that others have and offered a selection of steering and brake pedal weights in the options menu. Quite rightly, they have just focused on doing one properly.

Steering feel is good, although information comes as much through your backside as the wheel rim. What’s changed is the overall sense of balance. The Aventador was a handful on the limit, this feels more controlled and capable – and that despite having a steering rack that’s now 10 per cent faster (almost as direct as the Huracan STO’s).

How’s the economy and efficiency?

Asked no-one ever about a Lambo! But this is a brave new world, and it matters. Although it hasn’t published exact figures for emissions and fuel consumption yet, Lamborghini claims CO2 output has fallen 30 per cent compared to the Aventador Ultimae. The WLTP cycle figures will exaggerate the benefits of electric-only running. However, once that little battery is flat, you are using the V12 simply as a generator to recharge it.

One more thing to bear in mind. The added complexity and the fact it still uses a full-size V12 engine, not a downsized V8, means the Revuelto is a fair bit heavier than the old Aventador. The end-of-line Ultimae weighed in at 1,550kg, this new hybrid is 1,772kg. And that’s a dry weight, so we’re looking at a 1,900kg kerbweight. From a carbon-tubbed supercar.

In its defence we’d add that you don’t notice the weight. It feels lighter, more alive and engaging in your hands than the Aventador ever did.

Sum it up for us.

The closest Lamborghini has yet come to challenging Ferrari’s chassis dynamics. The Revuelto is not only deeply dramatic and exciting to drive, but this new level of control and integration adds real extra depth to the experience. Lamborghinis have often been seen as the ultimate show-off’s supercar, and given a wide berth by those who enjoy pure driving. The Revuelto reframes the game.

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Overview

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Interior

Interior

What is it like on the inside?

The touch points tell the story. You drop down into a cockpit that’s lost none of its drama, yet Lamborghini veterans know to brace themselves for the unyielding, plank-like seats. No longer. Instead these are curved and fitted, maybe a fraction generous in width, but you’ll nestle comfortably into them. And ahead of you the steering wheel is compact, surprisingly thin-rimmed and refreshingly (almost) round. And the materials and plastics feel better. And there’s a place to put your phone and wallet, plus a slot specifically to tuck the key into.

This is a welcoming car. Sure, you’ve had to perform a bit of bodily origami to fold yourself in here, but once ensconced you can stretch out. There’s notably more elbow room, plus 84mm more legroom and another 26mm for your head. Over your shoulder, there’s room for a golf bag. If that’s your thing.

Is there a boot in the nose?

There is and it’s big enough for a pair of cabin bags which easily beats the literal shoebox Ferrari gives you in the SF90. Back inside the storage trays (one under the centre screen, another back under your elbow) have a stippled surface so your phone won’t slip around.

The cabin is very much still a Lamborghini, with a windscreen that stretches away to a virtual infinity point and a low header rail. But this feels brighter and easier to see out of than before. Which admittedly isn’t saying much. Rear visibility is not only restricted, but the view out over the V12 is also distracting. However, one of the most surprising things about the Revuelto is that it feels like the designers and engineers have considered the ergonomics properly. It’s a Lamborghini for heaven’s sake.

Does this mean you notice the hand of VW and Audi more?

Not at all. Any carryover parts have been cleverly disguised and Germany’s corporate hand isn’t really in evidence. We suspect there’s been a lot of behind-the-scenes tutoring, but ultimately the team at Sant’Agata has been trusted to do the work themselves. It’s worked.

That steering wheel looks complicated.

Granted there’s a lot on it, but actually it’s very logically laid out. Besides controls for the lights and wipers there are four main knobs. The upper ones on each side control the powertrain, driving mode on the left, and EV mode on the right. The lower left controls the dampers (and nose lift), and the lower right does the aero. Even using the buttons to control the screen is largely straightforward.

Ah yes, screens. How many are we talking? How’s the tech?

Three screens. A 12.3-inch driver display, an 8.4-inch central screen and a slimline 9.1-inch touchscreen for the passenger. They’re all crisp, responsive and Lambo has resisted overdoing the graphics too much. Certainly the driver display majors on the info you need, which is still speed, revs and gear rather than how much electric you’ve got left. There’s a minor bar chart for that.

But here are things we’ve never seen before. A swipe function allows certain apps to be shunted from the central screen to one of the side screens like a smartphone. There’s What3Words and Amazon Alexa functionality (if you want Jeff to know how fast you’re going). We’re not saying it’s future-proofed, but it is a big advance.

Any other things worth mentioning?

Customisation has long been a major theme for these luxury car makers. Alongside 400 different exterior colours, there are 70 cabin colour options – some even with a nod towards environmentalism. For instance, the Corsa-Tex fabric is made from recycled polyester.

Drive in the dark and the rooftop brake light illuminates the engine bay. That’s fun. The plan, says Mitja Borkert, Lamborghini’s head of design, was “to make the driver feel like a pilot”, although that’s arguably been Lambo’s raison d’etre since forever. It’s true enough, but for us the real benefit of this cabin is how it melds style, angles and a sense of the exotic with real-world usability.

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Driving

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Buying

Buying

What should I be paying?

Pricing has yet to be announced, but the best guide is that prices will start from £450,000. Lord. That’s a lot of money. The Aventador starts at around £275,000 and an SF90 with very similar technical make-up and performance starts at £375,000. Although it’s hard to get out of the showroom having spent less than half a million.

Don’t for a moment think Lambo will be throwing everything in for free either. It’s a vast amount of money, which either makes Lamborghini look very greedy, or shows huge confidence in a product which is naturally much more costly and complex to engineer and build. We suspect they’ve priced it to keep volumes down and exclusivity up, which will ensure future residuals and, in turn, reflect well on the rest of the range.

Equipment: Lambos have always been more about personalisation than cutting edge tech, but Sant’Agata has had to bow to the inevitable and fit a complete ADAS system for the first time: blindspot warning, active cruise, lane departure and keep, rear cross traffic alert. It’s all here. And can all be disabled.

There is of course a staggering range of trim, options and colours available. Apparently one-in-five early orders have selected purple paint. It’s never been a car for shrinking violets. Unless Shrinking Violet is a colour choice, of course.

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Specs & Prices

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