Lamborghini Boss Hints At RWD Temerario, Won't Exclude Ditching Hybrid Altogether

Lamborghini CTO Hints At New Temerario Variants

So you want a Lamborghini Temerario, but you don’t have a spare $350,000 lying around, and certainly not another $200k or so to spend on the Alleggerita (lightweight) package and all the other options. Well, Sant’Agata may someday soon have a slightly cheaper, moderately less powerful solution. Speaking with CAR, Lamborghini chief technical officer Dr. Rouven Mohr indicated that the company’s smallest supercar could ditch its current plug-in hybrid setup at some point to create an entirely different driving experience: “I’m not saying in the future you couldn’t see a 2WD version of the street car, and then perhaps a different kind of hybridization.”

What The RWD Temerario Could Look Like Under The Skin

Mohr didn’t elaborate on the prospect, but removing the two electric motors on the front axle of the existing Temerario powertrain, leaving only the 110kW motor between the V8 engine and the eight-speed dual-clutch transmission, would make sense. This integrated motor provides torque fill when the 4.0-liter twin-turbo hot-vee engine can’t reach its peak figures (789 horsepower/538 lb-ft of torque) and also acts as a starter motor, so it would certainly need to be retained. The loss of 118 hp from the front axle wouldn’t be too high a price to pay – especially since the redline should still be at 10,000 rpm.

Presumably, the 3.8 kWh battery along the spine of the monocoque could be retained, and Mohr refers to the innovative T-Hybrid system in the 992.2 Carrera GTS as an example of how effective compact mild-hybrid systems are at delivering performance with minimal penalties to the handling, calling it a “super example of a completely different hybrid approach.” For the record, the Porsche has a 1.9 kWh battery, and it’s not unimaginable that the two could collaborate.

Will The Temerario Always Be A Hybrid? Never Say Never

You may have seen that Lamborghini recently launched the GT3 variant of its Temerario, and it has no hybrid system. But no car in that class has one due to Balance of Performance regulations, so it wasn’t a statement, nor did it foreshadow anything to come. Mohr seems fairly certain that road-going Temerarios will always be electrified, but of course, Lamborghini is not averse to a low-volume special edition, and it’s been working on synthetic fuels, so there’s always the faintest glimmer of hope.

“I would not completely exclude [a non-hybrid Temerario], but it’s not on the priority list,” said Lamborghini’s technical boss. “The probability is quite low, never say never, but at the moment, we have a lot of other things to do, and I would not bet my money on it. Just because we’re going racing and it’s not a hybrid, it doesn’t mean this would be the right approach for the street.”

Thanks to tightening emissions standards, it seems unlikely that the Temerario will ever be ICE-only, but is that so bad? There’s still more potential in both the engine and the axial flux motors; Mohr told Top Gear last year that over a thousand horsepower is easily possible. In addition, it was reported earlier this year that the Audi R8 could return with the Temerario’s engine, and that would surely only make sense for Ingolstadt as a hybrid.