There’s no future for manual transmissions in the Lamborghini lineup.

For enthusiasts who might have been out of the loop for some time, it may come as a big disappointment to learn that the old three-pedal setups have already been quietly phased out, with the last of the Gallardo and Murcielago models.

But the truth is that nobody was ordering them.

“You have no opportunity to be faster than a double clutch,” said Lamborghini CEO Stefan Winkelmann, this past week at the Detroit Auto Show.

“Nobody’s asking for it. When I joined Lamborghini it was ten percent maybe. At the end of Gallardo and Murcielago, it was: ‘If I see an order at my table, I want to see it, because it might be a mistake.’”

Raciest cars won't let you row your own

The phenomenon isn’t unique to Lamborghini. Ferrari no longer offers a manual gearbox in any of its cars; neither does McLaren. And even Porsche has admitted that projected demand is so low that it can’t justify the development money to continue the evolution of its manual.

For Lamborghini, it was partly the loss of drivability that engines with ever-higher-torque were bringing, said Maurizio Reggiani, the automaker’s head of R&D.

“From a technical point of view we are already at the limits,” said Reggiani. “It’s not a question of manual transmission, it’s the clutch—it’s really the fuse of the system—and clutches have the problem of management.”

Tough packaging, tired left legs

Reggiani explained that with such high-torque engines, you really have to go with high diameter units, which have packaging issues in a super-sports car, or you have to have a high load, which means you have a very heavy pedal.

“With the old Diablo, we arrived with a manual clutch where it took 42 kilograms to push the clutch,” said Reggiani. “And then we started to hear complaints from all the world, because if you fail, you burn the clutch, and then you have a complaint.”

In today’s cars, that load would be unbearably prohibitive—up to 70 kilograms.

“It’s the consequence if you have a car with maybe 600 N-m of torque,” said Reggiani. “You can do this three or four times and you say no more...or in front of your friend, you’re not able to start,” referring to a juddering clutch.

Dual-clutch benefits

In a dual-clutch configuration, it also means the clutch is not so big...It’s much easier to use organic material, with a high level of friction, because everything is managed by electronics.

Up until now the other models, like the Aventador, have used a single-clutch automated manual transmission—in a design that has nice, evenly spaced gears and super-quick (50 milliseconds) shifts, which is almost as quick as a Formula 1 car; but the layout has inferior low-speed drivability versus other such performance cars today.

The current Huracan marked the debut of a far more traffic-friendly yet solidly performing new dual-clutch gearbox—one that's been very well-received so far by the enthusiast community and Lamborghini owners.

“Yes, we have a development unit and development car," said Reggiani leaving us with a tease that it’s still looking to the future as a higher-torque dual-clutch gearbox for the Aventador, or its successor.

Hybrid Aventador and Huracan replacements, then an EV supercar in 2026

Lamborghini CEO Stefano Domenicali has confirmed that replacements for the Aventador and Huracan supercars, due in around 2020 and 2022 respectively, will be powered by plug-in hybrid powertrains.

On the face of it, this is troubling news. Batteries and motors mean more power, but also more weight. And as we all know, weight is the enemy. However, get ready for a silver lining.

“As long as I’m technical director, our super sports cars will not have a turbocharged engine, Maurizio Reggiani, Lamborghini’s chief technical officer, told us. “It’s about emotion. If you don’t have emotion, then you have nothing,”

What this means, Reggiani later clarified, is that the naturally aspirated V12 and V10 engines will live on for another generation, but with hybrid assistance, and a small electric-only range to help the company reduce its average emissions.

“The big questions are packaging and weight. Yes, this will be a silent Lamborghini, but push the accelerator and the engine will come. Silence will only last for some seconds then comes the sound.”

We can speculate all day about what form this hybrid assistance will take… so we will. Let’s assume Lamborghini borrows Porsche’s hybrid module from the Panamera Turbo S e-hybrid (that’s the Panamera that combines a 542bhp/568lb ft 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 with a 134bhp electric motor, energized from a 14kwh lithium-ion battery pack, to boost total outputs to 671bhp and 626lb ft. This itself is a powertrain that’s hotly tipped for a plug-in hybrid Lamborghini Urus, but I digress).

Apply that maths to an Aventador S and you end up with around 860bhp and 566lb ft of torque, and a 30-mile EV-only range, with a circa 300kg weight penalty. Do the same to the standard Huracan and you end up with 728bhp and 471lb ft. The numbers, it appears, well and truly stack up, and there’s still time for battery density to improve and the price of carbon fibre and other exotic materials to come down, both of which will improve the power-to-weight ratio sums.

In the car world, two to four years is nothing, meaning both cars will already be deep into development. Which is why Domenicali is already looking well beyond that.

“I don’t think that the technology for a full electric Lamborghini will be ready until 2026,” he explained, referencing the Terzo Millennio concept (pictured) as proof that they’re ready when the technology catches up. “Hybrids are a step towards that.”

Domenicali also admitted that his engineers are working on not just solid state batteries (widely accepted to be the next great leap, once lithium-ion has reached its full potential), but the idea of a hydrogen-powered supercar the generation after that.

We’re talking 15, 20 years into the future now, but if Domenicali wants to attract a new generation of buyers, he needs to stay ahead of the curve: “I want to consult with teenagers, I want to see the world through their eyes, speak their language and their culture has to be reflected in our business.”

So, teenagers. Is an electric or hydrogen Lambo what you want?

LP stands for Longitudinale and Posteriore. The Diablo had a different naming scheme, and the first-ever Lamborghini production car with all-wheel-drive used to be called VT for Viscous and Traction. Starting with the facelifted Murcielago and Gallardo, the nomenclature reverted to LP but added -4 for all-wheel drive.

This is how the Huracan came to be known as the Huracan LP 610-4 (with 610 standing for metric horsepower instead of displacement), but what happened with the Huracan Evo? The lack of an alphanumeric denomination is suspicious for the House of the Raging Bull, but there’s a reason for this change.

Lamborghini told Motor Trend that “the shift to real words, such as Performante and Evo, makes things easier to understand for the consumer and from a branding perspective.” A challenge, however, is securing the intellectual property rights to use these names worldwide.

Development chief Maurizio Reggiani claims the name of the high-performance successor to the Performante “is still under deep discussion”despite the fact Reggiani prefers Evo Performante to Performante Evo. The Superleggera badge that Lamborghini used on the Gallardo LP 570-4 Superleggera, on the other hand, isn’t coming back.

Sant’Agata Bolognese didn’t mention anything about the rear-wheel-drive Huracan, nor did it detail what’s in the pipeline for the mid-cycle refresh of the Performante. On the upside, rear-wheel steering helps the Huracan Evo corner with more surefootedness than ever before.

For the time being, the Aventador LP 770-4 SVJ is the most powerful Lamborghini on offer. The 6.5-liter V12 develops 759 horsepower at 8,500 rpm and 720 Nm (531 pound-feet) of torque at 6,750 rpm, translating to a Nurburgring lap of 6 minutes and 44 seconds.

Driven by Marco Mapelli and outfitted with a roll cage, the SVJ is the fastest production car on the German circuit, beating the Porsche 911 GT2 RS, Radical SR8 LM, and Lamborghini Huracan LP 640-4 Performante.

Lamborghini executives have been quite talkative in the last few weeks. The company’s chief technical officer Maurizio Reggiani confirmed the brand's V12 engine is here to stay and also hinted there might be one final version of the Aventador before its replacement debuts. Meanwhile, Lambo’s boss, Stefano Domenicali, claimed the automaker is considering another SUV in the lineup and more recently he also revealed it is too expensive to offer a manual gearbox for its supercars.

Domenicali was interviewed by MotorTrend’s Jonny Lieberman and the two discussed topics “about Lamborghini of course, but also the car world in general.” When our colleague asked Lambo’s CEO why there’s no manual option for both the Aventador and Huracan, the head honcho explained that it would cost way too much to build one.

How is this even possible when you are a Volkswagen Group marque? Let’s do some math. Even if Lamborghini charged customers a $25,000 premium for a limited edition of 200 Aventadors with a manual gearbox that would mean the brand will collect extra $5 million. This is an impressive figure but it “would not come even kind of close to covering the cost” of developing a stick shift ‘box or converting the supercar’s seven-speed automatic into a manual. And because the Aventador is so mechanically unique, Volkswagen Group just doesn’t have a properly sized manual.

When it comes to the Huracan, Domenicali told the publication, it is based on the Audi R8 which used to have a manual as did the Gallardo, the Huracan’s predecessor. Unfortunately, this six-speed transmission is long out of production and it will cost a fortune to start building it again. Simply put, Lamborghini would like to offer its customers a manual gearbox option but it just can’t.

Lamborghini last week unveiled the final version of its Aventador, and confirmed the car, known as the Ultimae, would be its last fitted with a non-electrified V-12.

For the Aventador's successor, which we could see as early as 2022, Lamborghini will go with a V-12 in a plug-in hybrid configuration.

The V-12 won't be the same 6.5-liter unit found in the Aventador, however. It will be an entirely new design, Lamborghini boss Stephan Winkelmann told Autoblog in an interview following the reveal of the Aventador Ultimae.

A new V-12 is a big deal for Lamborghini. The company has only ever had two V-12s. The first debuted in Lamborghini's first model, the 350 GT of the 1960s, and continued, albeit with updates, right on through to the Murcielago. A new V-12 was then developed for the Aventador. It develops 769 hp in the Aventador Ultimae and 830 hp in the Aventador-based Essenza SCV12 track car.

As for the new V-12, Winkelmann is holding back details but did reveal to Autoblog that nothing will be shared with the Aventador's engine. The hybrid technology will also be new, with Winkelmann revealing that there also won't be anything shared with the Aventador-based Sian mild-hybrid. There also won't be any turbocharging, he said.

Interestingly, Winkelmann also revealed to Autoblog that Lamborghini could still launch future track-only cars with non-electrified V-12s, but said nothing has been decided at this moment.

As for the Aventador's successor, all Winkelmann was willing to confirm was that it will feature carbon-fiber construction, all-wheel drive, all-wheel steering, and active aerodynamic technology.

The Lamborghini Aventador is going out with a bang with the limited-edition Aventador Ultimae, which marks the end of the current generation. Limited to just 350 units, the Aventador Ultimae produces 769 horsepower and 531 lb-ft of torque from Lamborghini's signature 6.5-liter V12. Not only does the Ultimae pack the most powerful V12 ever fitted to a standard production Aventador, but it's also Lamborghini's last-ever naturally aspirated V12 supercar.

Replacing the Aventador will be a new hybrid V12 supercar as Lamborghini fights to keep its venerable twelve-cylinder powerplant alive while complying with emissions regulations. Now, the Lamborghini Aventador's successor has been spied testing for the first time cruising inside Lamborghini's Sant'Agata Bolognese factory in Italy.

What you're looking at here isn't a test mule, either: this is the real deal. Unfortunately, at this early stage of development, the electrified supercar is extensively camouflaged. Lamborghini has done a good job disguising the design details, but we can see the Aventador's successor has a familiar-looking wedge shape with a low stance, new door lines, different door mirrors, and redesigned brakes. A high-mounted dual exhaust system dominates the rear end.

Speaking in an interview back in July, Lamborghini boss Stephan Winkelmann confirmed the Aventador's replacement will have a "completely new engine, a completely new drivetrain, a new battery" and that "everything is completely new." In other words, nothing from the current-generation Aventador and Sian will carry over.

Lamborghini has reached "the best possible power output" in the Ultimae's 6.5-liter V12 but electrical assistance will boost the V12 beyond 769 horsepower in the Aventador's replacement, with reports suggesting it could have over 1,000 horsepower on tap. If true, this will put Lamborghini's new flagship in Ferrari SF90 Stradale territory.

While we're sad to see Lamborghini ditch its naturally aspirated V12, an exciting new era for Lamborghini's flagship supercar is about to begin. The Aventador's successor is expected to debut in 2023, so we should see more prototypes get spied undergoing testing over the next few months.

Lamborghini is defying the downsizing trend by sticking to V12 power for the Aventador replacement while the Huracan successor's engine has already been confirmed to have more than six cylinders. Both will be hybrids to comply with stricter emissions regulations, but the large-displacement engines will be largely responsible for the propulsion. The peeps from Sant'Agata Bolognese are not in a hurry to jump on the EV bandwagon just yet.

In an interview with Tech Crunch, Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann said the company doesn't have to decide now about when it should pull the plug on combustion engines. While mainstream brands will have no other way but to discontinue the ICE in the European Union by the middle of the next decade, the smaller ones will have an extra year to retire fossil fuel cars:

Lamborghini's head honcho believes there's great potential in synthetic fuels as the savior of ICEs: "We still have the opportunity maybe to go into synthetic fuel with those types of cars." However, Winkelmann mentioned it can only be achieved if the legislation is changed, which he can't project will happen soon. If synthetic fuels won't gain traction, the 57-year-old executive says Lambo will go purely electric in the early 2030s.

The firm's first model to do away with a combustion engine will arrive in 2028 as a crossover. Before that happens, a plug-in hybrid Urus is expected to break cover before the end of the year. The facelifted Urus and Huracan Sterrato will go down in history as Lamborghini’s final ICE-only cars, with both coming out in the following months.

​​​​​​​By 2025, the Italian automaker aims to halve CO2 emissions by hybridizing all three model lines through a €1.5-billion investment. Some of the money will be used to further develop carbon fiber as a method to offset the weight gains caused by the additional hardware that comes with an electrified setup.

Investing a lot of money into a niche product implies taking a lot of financial risks, which is why Lamborghini worked with Audi to spread the costs. The Gallardo and Huracan were twinned with the first- and second-generation R8 models but Ingolstadt has made it clear there won't be a third one. However, Sant'Agata Bolognese has confirmed a new baby Lambo will debut in 2024. Speaking with Drive, a top executive explains how it'll be possible.

Francesco Scardaoni, Asia-Pacific region director, revealed the Huracan replacement will be an all-Lamborghini effort after many profitable years. Of course, one of the main reasons why the company is so successful has to do with the immense popularity of its Urus, so purists can call the SUV a necessary evil. 2022 was the brand's best year ever, achieving a turnover of €2.38 billion and an operating margin of 25.9 percent. It had an operating income of €614 million while deliveries rose to a record-breaking 9,233 units of which 5,367 were the Urus.

With no mechanically related Audi R8 planned, Scardaoni says Lamborghini has the freedom to develop the Huracan replacement as a bespoke product, without making any compromises. It'll ride on a new platform exclusively developed for the supercar, but the executive didn't rule out sharing it with other members of the Volkswagen Group. Initially, only Lamborghini will have access to the hardware.

The Huracan has been discontinued in the sense that you can't order one anymore. Yes, production is sold out until next year when the supercar will be retired. Naturally, Lamborghini has been tight-lipped about its successor, but we do know that it will be bitten by the downsizing bug. It'll lose the naturally aspirated V10 in favor of a smaller plug-in hybrid setup, likely based around a twin-turbo V8.

One of the few confirmed details is that Lamborghini will use the same eight-speed, dual-clutch automatic transmission found in the Revuelto. There's a report stating the turbochargers won't kick in until 7,000 rpm while the electric motor is going to be sandwiched between the V8 and DCT. Going down the hybrid route is necessary as even Lamborghini has to meet increasingly stringent emissions regulations.

The Revuelto is also a PHEV, and next year we'll see an electrified Urus as well, following numerous spy shots of prototypes undergoing testing. Coming around 2028, a 2+2 grand tourer will become the brand's first purely electric model.