Lamborghini's rolled into the Paris Motor Show with a new concept. It's called the Asterion LPI 910-4. It has all the superlatives you expect from the brand. It delivers over 900 horsepower. It goes from zero to 62 mph in three seconds flat. Top speed is 199 mph.
And it's a plug-in hybrid.
That's right. Lamborghini, a brand synonymous with excess, is embracing efficiency. Well, a little efficiency.
This is obviously a departure for Lamborghini. Its last big reveal, the Huracán, was a follow-up to the popular Gallardo, with a revised engine and a refreshed look. It’s the volume player in the Lambo stable, its role is to improve on a standard formula. The Aventador is the cost-no-object flagship, a $400,000 rocket so mean it makes Satan himself look friendly. The Asterion is something altogether new for Sant'Agata Bolognese: a cushy car with a cord.
“Things are changing. People are more aware, more sensitive,” Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann told TopGear.com. “Many of our customers are entrepreneurs. These people don’t just have passions, they have sharp minds and they know what is going on in the world.”
Hybrid Power
The full name tells you everything you need to know. Asterion is the proper name of the Minotaur, the mythical half-man, half-bull Lamborghini says represents “a powerful fusion between intellect and instinct.” (It’s worth noting the creature had the body of a man and the head of a bull, lived in a maze he apparently couldn’t find his way out of, and considered young Athenian men and maidens a delicacy. That’s not the kind of intellect we’re into, but Lamborghini may be running low on historic bulls to name their cars after. May we suggest the Ferdinand LP 610-4? How about the Bullwinkle LPI 910?)
LP is for “longitudinale posteriore,” meaning the engine is mid-mounted. The I is for “ibrido,” or hybrid. The number 910 refers to the horsepower, and the 4 tacked on at the end indicates the Asterion is for the permanently engaged four wheel drive system.
Plug-in hybrids make a lot of sense for luxury automakers. They deliver great fuel efficiency, helping automakers hit mandated fuel efficiency levels. There’s none of the range anxiety that accompanies purely battery-powered cars, and electric motors are a great way to make powerful cars even more juiced up, especially when you factor in their instant torque, which translates to instant acceleration. McLaren, Ferrari, and Porsche have already made the move, and each of their cars is insanely fast. These cars represent the very leading edge of automotive technology, and Lamborghini simply could not afford not to have one too.
The Asterion’s naturally aspirated 5.2-liter V10 engine, the same one used in the Huracàn, cranks out 610 horsepower and 413 pound-feet of torque. It’s got three electric motors: one for each front wheel and another between the engine the and gearbox. Together they add another 300 horses, bringing the total to 910. In hybrid mode, the engine and three motors work together to drive all four wheels. Lamborghini says the car uses just 4.12 liters of gas to go 100 kilometers. That works out to 57 miles per gallon. The Huracán, by comparison, gets 16. In electric mode, two motors drive the front wheels alone for up to 50 kilometers (30 miles, about what you'd expect from a plug-in hybrid) and can hit 77 mph, on par with BMW’s lovely plug-in i8.
