There are Matchbox cars and there are Hot Wheels cars. You probably had both but had a preference for one over the other. Matchbox always represented the production vehicles. Hot Wheels were the fantasy cars that you’d never see on the streets. Parallels can be made to left and right functions of the brain; artsy versus scientific, visionary versus realist, and all that.
The thing about Lamborghini is that Lamborghinis could be either Hot Wheels or Matchbox. They all look crazy and dramatic but they can be seen on the roads. When Lamborghini introduces a new concept car there is no doubt that it won’t look like anything else but it will magically be Lamborghini-like. To keep things equal, there is always a new technology lurking with each new Lamborghini. The whole vehicle therefore appeals to both the scientific and artistic sides of one’s brain. 
The vehicle pictured here is the Lamborghini Terzo Millennio. It is a concept, making it obvious that it will remain strictly a Hot Wheels car. But the technology it foretells is unlike anything we have seen thus far, appealing to, if not overwhelming, the analytical side of your brain. While we will never see Terzo Millennio production car, chances are that the first electric Lamborghini will use its technology.

All photos are courtesy of Joshua Sweeney. Checkout shootfordetails.com and follow him on Instagram.

For better or worse, the automotive world is going electric. Batteries are the energy storage units. The problem with batteries is that they are big, and bulky, and heavy, usually cube-shaped. Telling a Lamborghini designer to fit one into their vehicle is like telling Lady Gaga to wear a sweat suit.
This is why Lamborghini teamed up with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The people at MIT know a thing or two about materials, chemistry, and electronics. The goal here is to design new materials that answer energy storage challenges for the demands of an electric sport vehicle. Basically, they’re looking to add lightness, which may come at the expense of simplicity.

Did you ever hear a Lamborghini Aventador start up? It sounds different and that’s because it is different. It uses the energy from a low-voltage, 8-volt, capacitor to crank over the big V12, and not the typical battery. The second contributor to the dramatic start up is the engine cranks several times to remove any unburned gasoline, thus reducing emissions.
Lamborghini has been successfully using those capacitors for a while now. The idea behind the Terzo Millennio is to develop a technology that uses carbon-fiber body materials that will also act as an accumulator for energy storage. Basically, the complete body of the car is to be used as an electrical energy storage system.

Let that sink into your left side lobes – the chassis of the vehicle stores the energy that is needed to propel it.

The advantage of capacitors over batteries is that a capacitor is able to discharge and charge much faster than a battery. Lamborghini would combine that with batteries which supply baseline power, as on a typical electric vehicle. The capacitor power would be used sort of like a supercharger, quickly dumping additional energy to the motors, and then quickly recovering it. Lamborghini says that this will yield the power required to retain the Lamborghini driving characteristics. That power will be sent four motors, each mounted near each wheel.

The technical aspect of having the electric motors near the wheels has another positive effect – freedom for designers and aerodynamicists. This is the case of technology allowing greater freedom of dramatic expression that only Lamborghini designers can provide. That is a win for each side of your brain.
An introduction of any new design will draw cheers and jeers. If a picture is worth a thousand words, Joshua Sweeney’s amazing photography can speak volumes for the Terzo Millennio. Keep in mind that this is a concept, a Hot Wheels car by definition, designed to show future technical potential that will used in a Matchbox car.

Big thanks to Joshua Sweeney for his photography. Please check out shootfordetails.com and follow him on Instagram. All images copyright Joshua Sweeney/Hooniverse 2017.