The tri-motor PHEV powertrain in this Lamborghini Temerario is touted to churn out a combined 920 PS.
After over a decade on the market, Lamborghini has decided that it was high time to put its Huracan out to pasture and has since recently debuted the Temerario as its replacement. This all-new electrified baby bull unfortunately loses two cylinders over its predecessor, but in its place is a trio of electric motors that bumps its combined power output to a monstrous 920 PS.
Though before even getting to the electrified powertrain of what Lamborghini is dubbing as a High-Performance Electrified Vehicle (HPEV), the Temerario’s V8 is worth a quick mention too. Such is as this particular engine is to be the raging bull’s very own ground up design, with this particular 4.0-litre netting a pair of turbos in its hot-vee and a flat plane crank for maximum auditory enjoyment.
Of course as the headline of this story suggests too, this V8 is capable of screaming its way up to the heady heights of 10,000 rpm. Thanks to titanium con-rods and valve followers coated in Diamond Like Carbon (DLC) however, Lamborghini apparently still has room to turn the wick up even further still to a whopping 11,000 rpm.
Lamborghini currently touts that just its V8 alone makes 800 PS at its peak in the region of 9,000-9,750 rpm, which is incidentally already 45% more than what the 5.2-litre V10 it replaces makes. Add the trio of axial flux electric motors to the mix and that figure then jumps further to the headline-worthy 920 PS, which for those playing top trumps here, easily trounces the Ferrari 296 GTB’s 830 PS and almost pedestrian McLaren Artura’s 680 PS output.
Two of the motors in the Temerario live up front to make up its torque-vectoring all-wheel drive system, while also turning this baby bull into Lamborghini’s first front-wheel drive when in Citta mode. A third motor meanwhile mounted between the V8 and the new eight-speed dual-clutch transmission acts as a starter generator and fills in the torque curve with up to 300 Nm of shove, which in turn supposedly mitigates any lag from those high-pressure turbos (that provides up to 36 PS of boost!).
Now providing the juice to those trio of electric motors is a lithium-ion pack with almost token 3.8 kWh capacity, for which it is rumoured to afford only 3.5 km of silent all-electric driving range before the V8 roars into life. Topping the Temerario up nevertheless takes only 30 minutes using a 7 kW external supply, or as little as 6 minutes directly from its engine and regenerative braking.
Under the skin of this new Temerario is an all aluminium space frame, replacing the part-carbon part-aluminium architecture of the Huracan. Lamborghini touts that this fully metallic tub is 20% stiffer than the part-composite unit that came before, though the bigger news is probably for it to be physically bigger, with its 34 mm of increased headroom said to now be enough to 195+ cm drivers to fit into this baby bull while wearing a helmet.
As expected with all this electrification tech on board however, the Temerario’s quoted 1,715 kg kerb weight is over a quarter tonne more than the outgoing Huracan. Lamborghini nevertheless still quotes that this PHEV supercar’s 2.7 second 0-100 km/h time is 0.2 seconds faster than its predecessor, with its new 343 km/h V-Max being 18 km/h more as well.
Those who really want to lose some of the flab from this Temerario can also opt for the track-focused Alleggerita lightweight package available at launch. This particular optional extra adds a CFRP composite rear deck panel, undertray and body kit that drops the overall kerb weight by a measly 25 kg, but perhaps more importantly apparently yields a 103% improvement in rear downforce versus the old Huracan Evo to 158%.
Exterior-wise here, the Temerario has certainly stepped the design flamboyance up a notch over the outgoing Huracan. The headlights on this latest baby bull follows on from the reborn Countach and take up a small sliver of each corner of the hood, while a pair of hexagonal LED running lights sit just beneath them on each side of the front bumper.
The lower section of the Temerario’s rear is meanwhile cut away to expose a good chunk of its fat rear tyres, as well as make its overhang appear shorter. A massive hexagonal exhaust and similarly shaped taillights further adds to the drama round its rump, but some might also notice a rather pig-snout look after having stared at it for long enough.
Moving along within now, the Temerario’s cockpit-style cabin was apparently designed with the intention of make the driver feel like a fighter pilot on the road. This sentiment is reinforced by its starter button on the console still hidden under a red flip up cover, in addition to its aircraft-style crimson drive mode rotary knob on the top left of its flat bottomed steering wheel that enables drivers to toggle between Citta, Strada, Sport Corsa, and Corsa Plus.
An 8.4-inch portrait touchscreen features prominently at the centre of the Temerario’s dashboard below those rather angry-looking central air vents, while the driver has access to a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster and the passenger gets to play with a slightly smaller 9.1-inch touchscreen display. The standard-fit ‘comfort’ seats offers 18-ways of electric adjustment, and are to be both heated and ventilated.
Whereas the Revuelto is more serious and focused on outright pace, Lamborghini chief technical officer Rouven Mohr touts “the Temerario plays the role of the rebel that is challenging you – ‘let’s have fun, let’s have fun!’”. To that end therefore, this new baby bull has apparently been purposely designed to allow some vibrations to pass through to the car body and seats from the engine, in order to intensify the sensory experience while driving.
Moreover, the Temerario is the first Lamborghini to offer a drift mode that uses torque vectoring on the front motors to provide three levels of slip angle. Should one fancy playing at automotive YouTuber too in their new raging bull, the triple-camera Lamborghini Vision Unit factory option has made it that little bit easier by being offering the ability to record footage of the road, the occupants and an over-the-shoulder view from the rear firewall.
Pricing for the Temerario has yet to be officially announced thus far, but it is all but expected to command a comfortable premium over the outgoing Huracan. Lamborghini is also currently extensively promoting its Ad Personam personalisation programme, which touts to offers some 400 colours and liveries that could be had with one’s new HPEV.
A lighter, simpler rear-wheel drive variant is currently tipped to be on the cards for the Temerario in the near future. This is to be joined by the drop-top Spyder version, in addition to the all-but-expected lightweight track-focused versions that are to come as well over the next few years.
