Technology / Mon, 17 Aug 2026 Forbes India

How Lamborghini Designs Cars That Feel Like ‘Spaceships’

Mitja Borkert does not think of the Lamborghini Revuelto SV as a car. The Revuelto SV, unveiled on August 14, is the most powerful and fastest production car Lamborghini has ever built. The hybrid car is based on the Lamborghini Revuelto, the brand's first V12 hybrid supercar. On Lamborghini's sustainability strategy and how the hybrid V12 fits into that, Borkert says, "At Lamborghini, we feel responsible for the planet. AdvertisementOn what kind of role artificial intelligence (AI) is playing in automotive design at Lamborghini, Borkert says, "a very important one".

Mitja Borkert does not think of the Lamborghini Revuelto SV as a car. "It looks like an airplane, but you drive it then in the city centre in electric mode, and you feel [it is] even more like a spaceship," says Borkert, Lamborghini's head of design, of the Italian luxury sports carmaker's newest hybrid V12.

A V12 is an internal combustion engine with 12 cylinders arranged in two banks of six, usually in a V shape. It's a powerful engine that delivers its power exceptionally smoothly.

The Revuelto SV, unveiled on August 14, is the most powerful and fastest production car Lamborghini has ever built. The automaker will build only 1,963 units, a nod to the year the company was founded.

The hybrid car is based on the Lamborghini Revuelto, the brand's first V12 hybrid supercar. The SV variant further optimises every detail, from aerodynamics to power delivery. It accelerates from 0 to 100 kilometres an hour in just 2.4 seconds, from 0 to 200 km/h in 6.7 seconds and has a top speed exceeding 345 km/h.

Borkert says Lamborghini's goal with every car is to create a spaceship. "We want to create a car that is out of this world. We want to create a car that is sure to create goosebumps. We want to inspire the future generations, and I say we give adrenaline shape," he says at a pre-unveil media roundtable.

Earlier this year, Lamborghini pulled the plug on its electric vehicle (EV) plan, calling it an "expensive hobby" because the demand was "close to zero".

The Lanzador, which was to be its first EV and had its concept released in 2023, will now come as a plug-in hybrid.

Declining to speak on the carmaker's powertrain strategy, he said: "I will not speak about our powertrain strategy, but I can speak a lot about our design."

AI plays a very important role in automotive design at Lamborghini, says Borkert

Courtesy Automobili Lamborghini

"Over the last 10 years, we have created a couple of cars that are taking care of [different] powertrains [in terms of design]."

The most important thing, he says, is that all cars have to look like a Lamborghini. "Because the customer doesn't anymore want a differentiation between a design for electric, for hybrid or for combustion cars. The customer deserves a good-looking car. The customer deserves a Lamborghini. We want to walk the talk, and the goal is always to be disruptive with our designs."

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The dichotomy here—staying recognisable but being disruptive—is one Borkert says he wrestles with daily. "That is an everyday challenge. We are constantly asking ourselves what is next and what is possible. Every car has to have its own character."

Making a musical comparison, he says: "If you are an artist who has had a number one hit, it'd always be a bit difficult to have the second hit because the first one is so outstanding that the second one is complicated."

"But I'm comparing Lamborghini more with artists that have existed over decades. You need to reinvent yourself all the time, but you need to keep your DNA."

That same way, he says a Lamborghini has to look like a Lamborghini but "you need to find something where the people don't start saying: 'No, this I have seen already, or [in terms of music], this I have heard already’”

Asked for his view of Ferrari's new EV, the Luce, which has been planned for its design, Borkert says, "We have a gentleman's agreement within the design world that we should not talk about the other manufacturers. Because at the end of the day, I cannot judge what the circumstances were behind that project."

On Lamborghini's sustainability strategy and how the hybrid V12 fits into that, Borkert says, "At Lamborghini, we feel responsible for the planet. And me, personally, I'm a father to a boy, so we take this very seriously."

The Revuelto SV, he says, is a "very special piece that will never get thrown away. That for me is sustainability. I'm responsible for creating a design that will last, maybe even forever, because it's something that is created with a lot of passion, with a lot of dedication".

Lamborghini's fully hybrid line-up is built around three families: the Revuelto, the first plug-in hybrid powered by a V12; the Urus SE, the first plug-in hybrid SUV; and the Temerario, a V8 plug-in hybrid.

The Revuelto SV, unveiled on August 14, is the most powerful and fastest production Lamborghini ever built Courtesy Automobili Lamborghini

India, where Lamborghini has slowly been building a loyal consumer base, does not get its own design specs because the "car is designed to conquer the market around the globe", Borkert says.

What Indian buyers do get, along with everyone else, is the luxury to personalise their car. Asked what specifically tends to catch an Indian customer's eye, he says: "The colours, for sure."

"For us, it is important that every customer—whether in India or Japan or anywhere else on the planet—should find his Lamborghini and we ensure that by having more than 70 interior colours and more than 400 different exterior colours. The dream that we have is that in the future every Lamborghini should be special."

On what kind of role artificial intelligence (AI) is playing in automotive design at Lamborghini, Borkert says, "a very important one". "I understood the technology two years ago, and I tend to master the technology before I'm getting substituted by it. The wave of AI is arriving, but I want to surf the wave and therefore it is a wonderful augmentation of ideas and creativity that I'm experiencing."

He says the carmaker is using many tools and programmes to visualise faster, create videos, create colours, and tell stories.

Lamborghini has always been at the forefront of technology because we have been very digital, but at the same moment, we are also very handcrafted with a lot of hand sketching and modelling, says Borkert.

“I’m a very, let’s say, impatient person… a designer is very impatient because you want to see... a result and now using all these programmes, I can have an idea and then within seconds, I can visualise this idea and that, for me, absolutely fascinating.”