Lamborghini joined the sustainable crowd at the Paris Motor Show Wednesday with the introduction of its first plug-in hybrid, the Asterion LPI 910-4 — a 900-plus horsepower, all-wheel-drive monster that proves green can still be very, very mean.
The Asterion LPI, or “longitudinale posteriore ibrido,” (referring to the mid-engine placement design) is not your Greenpeace friend’s Prius — the luxury Italian hybrid boasts a 610-horsepower 5.2-liter V10 complimented by a trio of electric motors adding another 300 h.p. All 910 horses gallup via a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission and all-wheel-drive.
Drivers have the option of pure electric mode or combination power mode, which delivers 62 m.p.h. in three seconds, and maxes out just shy of 200 m.p.h. The Asterion — which derives its name from a mythological Greek minotaur (a man/bull hybrid… get it?) — can achieve a modest range of 31 miles in zero-emissions mode.
In the press release announcing the hybrid, Lamborghini proudly touted the reduced emissions of the Asterion’s next-gen drivetrain, which achieved a fuel-economy number of 57 m.p.g. on the European test cycle with CO2 emissions of 98 g/kg — all without sacrificing an ounce of performance.
The version unveiled Wednesday is still technically a concept, though it’s unlikely the final version will see many changes before public launch.
