It’s 2025 and Lamborghini is still making V12 engines. Not only that, but it’s still finding ways to make them more potent without forced induction. The “few-off” Fenomeno is proof, as it sports the manufacturer’s most powerful V12 to date at 823 horsepower—nine more than what’s in the Revuelto. You’d be justified in wondering if this is the max for the naturally aspirated 6.5-liter, but Lamborghini Chief Technical Officer Rouven Mohr insists it still has more to give.
While speaking with The Drive at Monterey Car Week, Mohr explained that Lamborghini intentionally capped the Fenomeno’s V12 at that number: “For our brand and positioning, we still believe we’ll have internal combustion late in the next decade. We are working continuously in improving also the power output of the combustion [engine]. The fact that we only chose to go up by [nine hp] was a question of portfolio choice. This does not mean that this is the limit of our V12.”
When pressed about where the extra nine hp comes from, Mohr elaborated, “It’s the selection of parts, minimizing tolerances, minimizing the friction. So it’s a fine-tuning. It’s not a new habit. It’s not changing the compression ratio or something like this. This we could do, but then the effort is for sure increasing.”
Now, listen. I’m not trying to make a mountain out of a molehill by pretending like nine hp is a huge increase, or that Lamborghini is achieving the unthinkable by simple “fine-tuning.” Neither is Mohr. But I do find it interesting that Lamborghini bothered adjusting the V12 at all, considering it also made the hybrid Fenomeno’s tri-motor electric drivetrain more powerful—up from 187 hp in the Revuelto to 241 hp. The wildly angular car makes 1,065 hp in total.
“It’s the same size, the package is the same, but it’s a completely different battery concept because in the standard we have the pouch cell and in this car we have a cylindrical cell, so we have a different chemistry but also different cell type,” Mohr explained. “And the cell type gives it more energy content, but also more power content, and the consequence is that then we also had to change the cooling for the battery. So overall it’s only using the same space. The rest is completely different.”
Mohr estimates that each electric motor could make 110 kilowatts, or 147 hp, and that’s without any modification to the standard lithium-ion chemistry or 400-volt system. You could easily get more than that by working with 800 volts, but that would require a different inverter, and then there’s the handicap of adding a larger battery that hampers the curb weight.
“At the moment, unfortunately the only option that you have is to make the battery bigger, but then you are in the trade off packaging and weight,” Mohr said. “So from our point of view at the moment, it doesn’t make sense. If you would change in the future completely, let me say the cooling and the chemistry of this battery, that the continuous power is not so much a problem, then 800 volts would absolutely make sense.”
Knowing what Mohr said about the V12, it’s tempting to guess what’s possible with the 6.5-liter. Could Lamborghini hit 900 hp without turbos? And then there’s the headroom with the electric drivetrain. Might Lamborghini crack 1,300 hp combined? No matter the end number, it’s something to see the manufacturer push on with its flagship internal combustion engine. If you’ll remember, Jeremy Clarkson said the V12 would be long gone by now.
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