Lamborghini Aventador replacement will have an electrified normally aspirated V12

Having adopted turbocharging for the first time in its history with the unveiling of the Urus three years ago, Lamborghini has confirmed that the eventual replacement for the almost decade old Aventador will have a large displacement V12 engine without forced induction.

This is according to Saint’Agata’s Chief Technical Officer, Maurizio Reggiani, who told US publication Car and Driver at the launch of the Huracan STO that the bent-twelve “has been part of the story of Lamborghini since the very beginning” and that it would continue albeit with the inclusion of an electric motor in order to reduce emissions and ensure it’s longevity without the need to downsize or incorporate turbochargers.

“The people I learned from told me that naturally aspirated engines are how you prove engineering is good because nothing helps you. You must be able to suck as much air as possible and then, based only on this, put more fuel inside the combustion chamber to generate power,” Reggiani said.

“If you have a machine to push air, it becomes more a question of the structure of the engine and how much boost it can take. With a big enough turbo, you can produce almost any output (but) when you have a turbo you have a damper on the sound. It is filtered by the turbo, and you end up trying to use artificial sound to reproduce what should be spontaneous and natural”.

Countering the use of turbocharges even further, Reggiani stated that the use of an electric motor would alleviate the torque weakness of normally aspirated engine, given the instant response as opposed to the initial lag associated with a turbo.

“If you have the possibility to use an electric front axle with torque vectoring left and right, you can do something truly exceptional in terms of helping the driver for traction and handling . . . it is like a collaboration between powertrain and chassis development, making a car that can stay exactly on a radius without any form of correction. This is like a dream for engineering,” he said.

In spite of revealing the limited edition hybrid Sián last year, which combines the Aventador’s 6.5-litre V12 with a 25 kW 48-volt mild hybrid system for a combined 602 kW, the Raging Bull has so far declined to comment on the arrival of its next flagship with the lack of spy images suggesting it won’t be soon.

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