The company is looking to “reinvent the character-defining attributes” of its cars in the EV age
June 7, 2024 at 09:09
- The carmaker’s future EVs will not try to replicate the thrills of a combustion engine
- Lamborghini is developing an active toe and camber system
- Company’s chief technical officer says young people in the future won’t understand the appeal of a manual ICE sports car.
Lamborghini is looking for new ways to make its vehicles stir driver’s emotions, something which could prove a challenge once it starts building EVs. However, the Italian company is not interested in simulating the character of an ICE into an electric vehicle, as Hyundai has done with the lauded Ioniq 5 N.
While recently speaking with Top Gear, Lamborghini chief technical officer Rouven Mohr said they aim to build cars with the strongest connection between man and machine. Doing so with EVs is “harder” but “not impossible” and the company already has some cool ideas.
Read: Lamborghini Working On Active Toe And Camber Adjustment To Slash Lap Times
“The emotionally minded car manufacturers must focus on different things in the electric world,” he said. “It’s not the right way to imitate the character of internal combustion engines (ICE). The emotions of future EVs won’t be generated by the type of motor or battery they use; these are only the enablers which free up performance and range requirements. Character is defined by other things. I think we have some cool ideas. In the next year or two we will showcase our thoughts. It’s far away from what your 0-62mph acceleration time is. That is not something that generates fun.”
Mohr said that Lamborghini is investigating ways to generate the ‘I want to have’ feeling that its current buyers feel but for its forthcoming EVs. He said that while the Ioniq 5 N is a “really well done car,” Lamborghini needs “something away from what already exists.”
“Our area of the car industry has to reinvent the character-defining attributes of a car,” he added. “Step by step, the next generations will develop a different interpretation of what is cool. There will be a point where young people don’t understand the appeal of an ICE manual sports car.”
One intriguing new technology we know Lamborghini is developing is active toe and camber adjustment. The system uses a pair of 48-volt electric motors that offer 6.6 degrees of toe adjustment in either direction, up to 2.5 degrees of positive camber, and 5.5 degrees of negative camber. This system works on the fly and can adjust the toe and camber by up to 60 degrees per second.
Speaking about this system, Mohr said it allows for driving maneuvers “that weren’t previously possible.”
“You can control the best position of tyre then, with scalpel sharpness, define the right amount of torque,” he told Top Gear. “The engine has to put the air in, then fuel, then you have the combustion. You can’t control power delivery in milliseconds like you can with electric motors. With an EV you can make sure the motor is constantly slipping the wheel, like a kind of reverse traction control. This is not possible with ICE.”
