Automobili Lamborghini has been collaborating with the MIT – Massachusetts Institute of Technology – to pioneer the future of sports cars and rewrite the rules of automotive technology.  Today Lamborghini unveiled their first prototype the “Terzo Millennio” at EmTech MIT Conference. The prototype is on display for EmTech MIT attendees and the MIT community.

This visionary concept physically imagines design and technology of tomorrow through a possible future Lamborghini electric super sports car, which aims to deliver the most emotional and ultimate driving experience.

This sports car of the future uses electricity instead of gasoline. Electric systems generate high efficiency and offer several interesting characteristics like the possibility to recover kinetic energy and to deliver huge peaks of power. In order to take the most from the opportunities offered by electrification, the accumulation system must be power-oriented and symmetrical, to allow high performances and the greatest energy recovery possible.

To harvest this opportunity, today’s batteries are not enough and a big leap forward is needed: Lamborghini 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 aims to reduce weight and to increase the availability of electric energy using structural electric energy storing composites as a rechargeable battery. The target is to improve the nanomaterial technology, diffusing nano-charges in CFK-based panels able to store electric energy and in the meantime to form the body and structures of the car.

At the same time, the project aims to combine the technology to monitor continuously the whole carbon fiber structure, both visible and invisible, with the concept of health-monitoring: the goal is to provide for the Terzo Millennio the ability to conduct its own health-monitoring, to detect cracks and damages that might occur after accident, throughout its substructure, while limiting or reducing to zero the risks correlated to the presence and propagation of cracks in the carbon fiber structure.

One of the most interesting advantage of every electric powertrain is to feed with energy a system made of several electric machines, just through wires. Lamborghini aims to use this opportunity to generate torque directly into the wheels, letting the body of the vehicle free to be shaped by the needs of design and aerodynamics.

The challenge to be faced here is to develop a technology suitable to increase the power density of the in–wheel electric motor to the level a 4WD super sports car deserves, keeping the weight of the unsuspended masses under control. The opportunities in terms of weight, aerodynamics and design are so huge that it worth investigating for feasibility of further development.

Content: Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A.