Lamborghini has peeled back the curtain on an audacious concept that offers a rough outline of the supercar manufacturer's pathway into the future. The Terzo Millennio was developed in collaboration with MIT researchers, and is a thought experiment intended to inspire engineering breakthroughs that give rise to a new generation of electrified sports cars.
Lamborghini hopes the collaboration with MIT scientists in creating the all-electric Terzo Millennio will bear fruit in the form of "radical innovation" across five key areas. The first of these relates to energy storage systems, with Lamborghini citing a motivation to move away from conventional batteries and explore supercapacitors as a way of powering the Terzo Millennio.
This ties in with the second area – the use of innovative materials. This includes new manufacturing approaches for producing the carbon fiber bodyshell that not only make make the vehicle lighter, but also allow the body to be used as an energy storage system. Lamborghini says it is even investigating self-healing properties, where the vehicle detects and fixes cracks to its sub-structure automatically by way of micro-channels filled with healing chemicals.
Third comes propulsion, and the Terzo Millennio would leave behind the brawny V-12s Lamborghini is known for in favor of greener and more compact electric engines in the wheels. Design is the fourth dimension, with the aforementioned technological advances creating new possibilities around aerodynamic performance.
Finally comes emotion, with Lamborghini looking to achieve all of the above while maintaining the sensation of driving one of its cars, which would be assisted through the responsiveness of the vehicle's electric motors, its four-wheel torque control and dynamic body control system.
The Terzo Millennio was revealed at MIT's EmTech Conference this week, an annual conference that showcases new developments in engineering and technology. You can check it out from all angles in our gallery.
Source: Lamborghini 1, 2
