Lamborghini of the Terzo Millennio: the electric super sports car of the future

Sant’Agata Bolognese/Cambridge (MA): Lamborghini is developing an electric super sports car of the future, in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The new design concept ‘Lamborghini of the Terzo Millennio’ is out, and it imagines design and technology theories of tomorrow, while sustaining the visual intrigue, performance and visceral emotion found in every Lamborghini. The Terzo Millennio is the first step towards building what would be a complete ‘Lamborghini Electric’.

Built around five dimensions of energy storage systems, innovative materials, propulsion system, visionary design and emotion, the company has collaborated with MIT to develop radical innovation in energy storage systems technology and material science.

The approach on energy storage is to move away from conventional batteries and explore the potential of super capacitors to equip the Terzo Millennio. A storage system that is able to deliver high peak power and regenerate kinetic energy with limited influence from aging and cycling during the vehicle’s life. And which has the ability to symmetrically release and harvest electric power. The idea is to overcome the limits of today’s technology and close the gap on conventional batteries’ energy density while preserving the high power, symmetrical behaviour and the very long lifecycle related to super capacitor technology.

Material innovation includes carbon fiber structures and parts, with enhanced ability to develop features and functions that take lightweight materials to the next level. The bodyshell of the Terzo Millennio will act as an accumulator for energy storage and enable the complete body of the car to be used as a storage system. Terzo Millennio will have the ability to conduct its own health monitoring to detect cracks and damages in its substructure derived from accidents, and a self-repairing process will be activated via micro-channels filled with healing chemistries, reducing risks of small cracks propagating further in the carbon fibre structure.

Each wheel will incorporate an integrated electric engine, that would harvest opportunities of high torque, reversibility, and the possibility of moving energy by wire. Moving the electric motors into the wheels would also give considerable freedom to designers and aerodynamicists.

The design elements take into account technology changes and anticipate elements of forthcoming Lamborghini design, to expresses aerodynamic supremacy around a new architecture that is dedicated to perfecting airflow. An advanced monocoque based on Lamborghini’s Forged Composite technology can be modelled, containing only the energy accumulation system and driver’s and co-driver’s seats, inspired by race cars.

Fundamental to a Lamborghini hypercar of the future is sustaining the emotion of driving a Lamborghini. The responsiveness of the electric motors, the four-wheel torque control and the dynamic body control system will enhance the driver’s experience, and the consequent aerodynamics and lightweight approach will result in a new dimension of longitudinal as well as lateral dynamics, in a combination unknown to electrified cars yet.

The Terzo Millenio’s virtual cockpit would allow for more than travelling the highways of the future. The Piloted Driving simulation would allow the driver to be taken around a track such as Imola by a virtual expert, before the driver takes over to feel like a ‘pilot’ himself. Experiencing the real car and circuit while following the virtual ghost car.

All we can say is, welcome to the space age.