The internet rumor mill just kicked into high gear with word that Lamborghini is going to be making a hybrid. First there's hybrids cropping up on racetracks around the world, then Ferrari might be getting into the act, then Mercedes says the new Gullwingwill be an EV and now this. Lamborghini, the poster child of the bad-boy, look-at-me, I-wanna-go-fast-don't-care-about-the-environment car world supposedly is going green.
Lamborghini, a car company most recently known for getting its high performance act together under the tutelage of new corporate overlord Volkswagen, and before that, a car company that bounced from one owner to the next, all the while making impressive cars of so-so quality, are getting into the hybrid game. First they roll out the de-contented LP 550-2 Valentino Balboni, and now a hybrid? It's like they're getting super-practical all of a sudden.
LeftLaneNews first pointed out the news from on high. Lambo CEO Stephan Winkelmann, when asked about EVs, said that a fully electric Lamborghini is out of the question but that his company was looking for electric motors to help their sports cars reduce consumption in urban, low-speed driving, and that a gas engine would be the best solution for high-performance driving.
Autoblog says the hybrid Lambo will be a Gallardo variant, and that it will hit the streets in 2015, which is the same year as the hybrid Ferrari debuts. They were unsure which sort of mill would be under the decklid, pointing to either a V10 or a V12.
The greenies over at Gas 2.0 ask the following: "But really, does Lambo need to go green? Or is this just another ploy? If anyone can afford to try out new technologies it is supercar makers like Ferrari and Lambo, so why not ... " Odd questions to ask, since we feel that everybody needs to be greener. Not to mention the fact that the companies that can least afford experimentations like this are supercar makers, a notoriously tenuous endeavor.
If this turns out to be true, and Winkelmann does manage to roll out the Lambo hybrid at the same time as Ferrari, the implications are crystal clear: Match race!
Photo: Lamborghini
