One year ago, Lamborghini started a collaboration with MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). This association marks the first steps towards an electric Lamborghini Super Car. A revolution.
Unveiled on November 7 in Boston during the EmTech MIT Conference, the “Terzo Millennio” is a new design concept for the future of super cars. The goal of the project is first and foremost technological. With this car design like something straight out of a sci-fi movie, Lamborghini is looking to the future of super sport cars in four different fields: energy storage, innovative materials, powertrain architecture as well as a new form of visionary design.
Body as a storage system.
With this vehicle, Lamborghini defines the requirements of the third millennium in terms of energy storage and innovative materials, in collaboration with two MIT laboratories: the “Dinca Research Lab”, led by Prof. Mircea Dinca, Department of Chemistry, and the “Mechanosynthesis Group”, led by Prof. Anastasios John Hart, Department of Mechanical Engineering. The strategy, for the automaker and MIT, involves creating super cars with uncompromising performance and above all revolutionize the approach to energy storage by moving away from conventional batteries and studying the potential of supercapacitors. Accordingly, Lamborghini and MIT will study carbon fiber materials capable of acting as a battery for energy storage. This revolution could therefore allow the full body of the vehicle to be used as a storage system. In addition to the energy storage systems and the innovative material design, Lamborghini also aims to take on the future of powertrain architecture while maintaining performance, as well as the sound and feeling from hearing from it, that remains central to the brand’s identity. To do so, the automaker wants to integrate an electric engine at each wheel thus perpetuating the commitment to four-wheel drive by capitalizing on the opportunities offered by electric engines: high torque, reversibility and the ability to transfer power by wire. The Terzo Millennio also embodies Lamborghini’s first steps towards creating an “Electric Lamborghini”. Moving the electric engines to the wheels also offers greater freedom not only to the designers but especially to the aerodynamic specialists.
With the Terzo Millenio, Lamborghini is not just seeking to create a new concept with no future. The Italian automaker is actively shaping the future of sport cars and while no date has been set for the first tests of a full-size model, there is no doubt that the collaboration between Lamborghini and MIT has already kicked started a new industrial revolution in the automotive sector.
© photos : Lamborghini
