Electric Lamborghini without batteries

Automobili Lamborghini plans an electric super sports car that won’t run on batteries.

It’s working with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to develop the Terzo Millennio all-wheel drive with four electric motors designed to be powered by supercapacitor technology using energy stored within the car’s body.

While that technology isn’t sufficiently developed yet, Lamborghini wants to ensure it is.

“The aim is to develop an innovative supercapacitor able to close the gap with conventional batteries in terms of energy density, preserving an outstanding power density,” Lamborghini says.

“This is in line with the application of low voltage supercapacitors in the V12 Aventador, which started five years ago. The next logical step is the development of a storage system able to deliver high peak power and regenerate kinetic energy with very limited influence from aging and cycling during the vehicle’s life, and with the ability to symmetrically release and harvest electric power.”

The main reason is that batteries are too heavy and lose charge too fast for the light-weight super sports car, which will have a mainly carbon fibre body shell.

MIT professor John Hart will investigate materials which can allow the car’s complete body to be used as a power storage system.

The carbon nanotubes can also have self-healing properties, the car able to detect and repair any small cracks and damage itself.

Electric power is quiet, so Lamborghini is also looking at ways to define a sound to substitute the one from its current V12s.

The Terzo Millenio’s virtual cockpit also provides more than travelling the highways of a future world.

Its piloted driving simulation allows the driver to be taken around a track, such as Imola, by a virtual expert before the driver takes over, experiencing the real car and circuit while following the virtual ghost car.