2024 Lamborghini Revuelto First Street Drive: Going Hybrid Only Improves the New V-12 Supercar

We love a big gas-burning V-12, but sometimes everyone needs a bit of silence.

What do you know Lamborghini for? Insane, V-12 supercars? Outrageous performance? Preposterous design? With the Avendator’s demise, the Italian automaker needs something to fill the top spot. And this is it—the 2024 Lamborghini Revuelto. Still outrageous, still with a V-12 engine, but now with plug-in hybrid technology. Does the latter mean it loses some of the classic Lamborghini magic?

Certainly not on a track. In our First Drive story last fall, Angus MacKenzie praised the “accessibility of [the Revuelto’s] searing performance,” and its chassis composure under pressure. “This is the best Lamborghini we have ever driven,” he said. “A benchmark car from Sant’Agata Bolognese.”

High praise, for sure, but most of us aren’t so lucky as to drive the 2024 Lamborghini Revuelto at full tilt around a racetrack all day. However, we’re happy to report it feels just as special when introduced to public roadways.

See All 22 Photos22

A Beast for the Road

The power? Colossal. Put your foot down, and the new Revuelto surges forward in a thundercrack of screaming V-12 intensity. Power delivery is linear and unrelenting; it just keeps going. Electric cars may beat combustion cars in off-the-line acceleration, but few things can touch 12 naturally aspirated cylinders and a near-10,000-rpm redline. Whereas most performance EVs plateau after a certain speed, the Revuelto feels like it’ll keep accelerating until it knocks on the moon.

There’s absolutely no doubt you’re driving a supercar because even trips to the coffee shop are eventful. The Lamborghini’s precise steering keeps the nose alert, and the low-slung stance has the big supercar (and you) slinking across the pavement like a predator. Its ride quality is a bit stiff but certainly livable. Visibility everywhere except forward is atrocious, naturally, but this is how it’s supposed to be. Lamborghinis are for living in the present, not the past.

See All 22 Photos22

A Hybrid Party Trick

The 2024 Lamborghini Revuelto’s big party trick is its tri-motor plug-in hybrid system. A new driving mode called Città (City) gives it EV-only capabilities for 6.2 miles at a maximum output of 180 hp. It might not sound like a lot, but it brings a new dimension to the Revuelto no V-12 Lamborghini has ever featured before.

Don’t get us wrong, we love a banshee V-12 as much as any enthusiast with a pulse does, but sometimes it can be too much of a good thing. Here and there you might just want some peace and quiet, or maybe you need to sneak off somewhere without drawing attention to yourself. The new EV mode—easily accessible via a dial on the steering wheel—shuts off the engine so the car runs on battery alone and scoots silently through the streets with sleepy locals none the wiser.

A handy indicator on the driver’s cluster shows you how much charge remains, and yes, it depletes rather quickly. But put the car back in Strada (Street) mode, and the battery charges in just a few minutes.

It’s great fun to bomb around on curved roads and then silence the engine when passing through town centers. It feels like donning a disguise. Like keeping a secret.

See All 22 Photos22

Buttons and Not

The practical weaknesses are also expected ones. For all the Revuelto’s cool capabilities, most of the commands a driver will issue have been relegated to the plethora of steering-wheel buttons. It looks busy and cluttered.

Also, although touchscreens are seemingly inevitable, making the climate menu a touchscreen-only affair is both frustrating and distracting. And the decision to tuck it behind the startup menu—so you must first select the climate menu prior to using it—is downright lunacy.

In short, there are no buttons where there should be, and buttons where there shouldn’t be.

Still Magical?

As a complete package, though, the 2024 Lamborghini Revuelto hybrid loses none of that old Lamborghini magic practically everyone loves. You could spend an hour staring at the car’s bodywork and still find a new and interesting design angle to study, and the addition of electric propulsion only enhances the V-12's might.

Indeed, the Revuelto supercar gains a covert use case that only adds to the experience of living with it and makes the V-12 optional only when and where you want it to be. For everywhere else, you can still go maximum attack.