Lamborghini Goes Fully Electric With the Terzo Millennio
Lamborghini’s Terzo Millennio claims to be the super sports car of the future, complete with energy recovery systems and supercapacitors.
We can hear the purists cursing around the world, rolling their eyes in disbelief. Lamborghini, a car manufacturer who claims to be all about the emotion of driving, the visceral feeling of horsepower, has announced a fully electric concept vehicle.
It’s called the Terzo Millennio, which is Italian for “Third Millennium.” It’s an EV that shares little to zero resemblance with modern electric vehicles, including the super fast Tesla Model S. Lamborghini teamed up with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to define energy storage and innovative materials in order to secure the most emotional driving experience.
After more than three years of research, the two engineering powerhouses came up with a stunning electric super sports car that’s worthy of bearing the Raging Bull badge. The biggest challenge was, and still is, to provide the kind of power output a vehicle of this caliber demands. Of course, it’s not as simple as adding more batteries due to weight management concerns.
As a result, Lamborghini employed the help of supercapacitors. These electrical engineering marvels allow engineers to save weight on batteries and keep operating temperatures low. These supercapacitors operate at lower temperatures, and are more compact, compared to conventional batteries. The downside is that they don’t offer as much power capacity as regular batteries, and they don’t charge nearly as fast.
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“A lot of the innovation that came and made its way into consumer cars started with things like Formula 1 and supercars,” says Mircea Dinca, an associate professor of chemistry at MIT, whose lab is one of two working with the car maker. “I think that if Lamborghini—and we—deliver on this promise, it will be really cool for the future of all transportation.”
Another groundbreaking feature of the Terzo Millennio is its “self-healing” body. A new resin made out of carbon fibers, just like the aforementioned supercapacitors, will supposedly be able to restore itself if damaged. While there’s no more explanation on the technology or any of its performance specs, this could easily be the world’s fastest and most advanced fully electric vehicle.
The windshield of the concept car appears to morph into the roof, while active aerodynamic bits adorn the perimeter of the car. Lamborghini claims that if needed, every component could be made out of carbon fiber, as long as its technology allows for failure detection.
While highly speculative, the Terzo Millennio will one day become a reality. Whether that’s in 10 years or 30 years — we don’t know?
