Electricity is revolutionizing the modern supercar — but not in the way people expected. The Lamborghini Temerario shows how hybrid tech is becoming a sine qua non for automakers that hope to compete in the highest leagues of performance.
With 789 hp, the Temerario’s twin-turbo, 4.0-liter V-8 might once have seemed plentiful on its own; especially with a sensational 10,000-rpm redline that makes this the world’s highest-revving production V-8. But for the successor to the Huracán, merely the best-selling model in the brand’s history, Lamborghini adds three axial-flux electric motors.
A pair on the front axle provide all-wheel-drive traction and torque-vectoring tricks. A total 907 hp fairly shames the 640 horses of top Huracán models. That compares favorably with the 1,001 hp of the Revuelto hybrid, Lamborghini’s V-12 flagship.
Departing Lamborghini’s home in Sant’Agata Bolognese in the Temerario, my opening stint in traffic is marked by cognitive dissonance: A raspy, reedy V-8 tune seems chamber music in the wake of the Huracán’s famously baroque V-10 thunder.
The Temerario is unmistakably a Lamborghini, its wedgy silhouette marking a descent from the classic midengine Countach. But some of the brand’s louche visual drama goes missing. A smooth-lozenge shape, designed for maximum aerodynamic function, finally gives way to Klingon-warship aggression at the extruded, geometric rear.
In mellow Città mode, this plug-in hybrid can hum on electricity alone for about five miles. It can also recharge its 3.8 kilowatt-hour battery on-the-fly. A new aluminum spaceframe carves out welcome gains in legroom and headroom — the latter allowing a six-ft, five-in driver to don a helmet on track — in a car that’s 9.7 inches longer than a Huracán.
Accommodation continues with three intuitive displays, one a new passenger screen. An available “Lamborghini Vision Unit” combines three cameras (one peers over a driver’s shoulder), performance data and preloads of 150 race circuits to coach drivers to faster laps, or just record video memories of epic drives.
If only I had been recording. Selecting Strada or Corsa modes reveals a supercar with astonishing acceleration and a playful streak. Steering is blessedly light, the handling frisky, largely defying a chunky curb weight of roughly 4,050 lbs. A dual-clutch gearbox toggles smartly between eight gears, with Corsa mode demanding manual operation of carbon-fiber paddle shifters.
The Ferrari-esque flat-plane V-8 comes shriekingly alive just when many engines are forced to shift, while electric motors fill any gaps in acceleration. Owners will quickly become addicted to that 10,000-rpm fix, just a throttle press away. Figure a 2.4-second burst to 60 mph, a quarter-mile in about 9.9 seconds and a 212-mph top speed.
For an all-wheel-drive car, the Temerario squirms more under hard throttle than one might expect — more than a rear-drive Ferrari 296GTB, a V-6 hybrid whose holistic performance the Lamborghini can’t quite match. But you can feel those electrified front wheels tugging the Temerario out of corners, in a good, natural way.
The Lambo’s systems also constantly account for a driver’s inputs, balancing stability and safety with those nimble dynamics. There’s even a Drift mode with three levels of tail-wagging for daring pilots, but hopefully not their teenage offspring.
I watched workers build Temerarios, in a Crayola-hued range of 400 standard paint colors, at the factory. Buyers will see the first models in early 2026, starting from $386,649 in the US. That’s about $125,000 more than a standard Huracán. For hybrid tech that’s all the rage in supercars, power and price go hand-in-hand.