A Private Evening in Chelsea for Lamborghini’s Electrified Flagship
One week after the Revuelto‘s global reveal on March 29, 2023, Lamborghini flew its top brass to Manhattan for something far more intimate than a typical auto show stand. On the evening of April 4th, the Lamborghini Lounge NYC in the Chelsea Arts District hosted the car’s US premiere: a private reception where CEO Stephan Winkelmann, Chief Technical Officer Rouven Mohr, and Chief Marketing and Sales Officer Federico Foschini presented the orange flagship to a curated audience of loyal customers, VIPs, and select media.
The setting was deliberate. Chelsea, not the Javits Center. An invitation-only evening, not a press conference with a countdown clock. The Revuelto sat on a raised platform with its scissor doors open, bathed in branded lighting, while guests circled a car that most of them had already placed deposits on sight unseen. Lamborghini says customer demand for the Revuelto “has been extremely strong,” with first deliveries anticipated by the end of 2023.
For a brand celebrating its 60th anniversary, the choreography carried weight. The United States remains Lamborghini’s top sales market globally, accounting for 2,721 vehicles delivered in 2022, a 10% increase over 2021. Bringing the Revuelto stateside within days of its world debut was less a courtesy and more an acknowledgment of where the money lives. And the way Lamborghini chose to present the car reveals just as much about the company’s evolving relationship with its buyers as the hybrid V12 under the engine cover.
Attendees gather around the new Lamborghini Revuelto with its iconic scissor doors open at an exclusive evening event. Image: Automobili Lamborghini.
Why the Lamborghini Lounge, and Why Now
Lamborghini’s Lounge concept is a format the company deploys for moments it considers strategically important. Unlike a dealership launch or a motor show booth, the Lounge controls every sensory detail: lighting, music, food, and critically, who walks through the door. Placing the Revuelto in an arts district rather than an automotive context reinforced the idea that this car belongs in a cultural conversation, not just a horsepower arms race.
Timing mattered, too. Lamborghini had just announced record-breaking results for 2022 in sales, turnover, and profitability. Presenting the Revuelto against that financial backdrop let Winkelmann make a case that electrification and commercial success are not in tension. The subtext for the room full of existing owners was clear: the brand you invested in is thriving, and this is the next chapter.
From a buyer’s perspective, events like this serve a practical function beyond spectacle. Customers could examine the car’s proportions, sit in the cockpit, and engage with the Ad Personam customization program. One of the evening’s most telling details was a wall displaying dozens of Ad Personam paint samples in various colors and finishes, a visual reminder that the Revuelto’s configurator offers an almost absurd level of personalization. For anyone placing a six-figure order on a car they cannot test drive yet, touching physical samples and speaking directly with Lamborghini’s design team collapses the distance between deposit and delivery.
A Lamborghini executive stands proudly in front of a vibrant display of 'Ad Personam' paint samples. Image: Automobili Lamborghini.
The Revuelto’s Design Lineage and What It Signals
Lamborghini says the Revuelto’s design draws inspiration from every V12 model since the 1971 Countach prototype, and the car on display in Chelsea made that lineage visible. Y-shaped LED running lights, angular side intakes, and a single center line running the length of the body all trace back through the Aventador, Murciélago, and Diablo. The scissor doors, of course, remain non-negotiable for a V12 Lamborghini flagship.
What the design also signals is confidence. The Revuelto does not look like a car apologizing for its hybrid powertrain. It does not hide battery packs behind conservative bodywork or soften its proportions for aerodynamic compromise. The exposed engine bay, a feature it shares with very few production cars at this price point, announces that the V12 remains the centerpiece, not an afterthought bolted to an electric motor. Like most other Lamborghinis, the Revuelto gets its name from a Spanish fighting bull, continuing a tradition that ties the brand’s most aggressive machines to the arena.
The striking new Lamborghini Revuelto is presented on a platform, illuminated by its distinctive logo. Image: Automobili Lamborghini.
1,001 Horsepower and a First for the V12: What the Hybrid Architecture Delivers
The Revuelto produces a combined output of 1015 CV (1,001 horsepower) from an entirely new combustion engine paired with three electric motors. The V12 is not carried over from the Aventador; Lamborghini says it is a clean-sheet design. A double-clutch gearbox makes its debut on a 12-cylinder Lamborghini for the first time, replacing the Aventador’s single-clutch automated manual, a transmission that even devoted owners acknowledged could be agricultural at low speeds.
That shift to a dual-clutch unit matters more than the headline power figure for daily use. Aventador owners on enthusiast forums consistently cited the jerky low-speed behavior of the old gearbox as the car’s most significant livability compromise. The Revuelto’s new transmission, combined with the electric motors’ ability to fill torque gaps, should make the car dramatically more pleasant in stop-and-go traffic, a scenario that anyone who actually drives a supercar in a city like New York encounters constantly. Lamborghini also emphasizes optimized weight distribution for enhanced agility on road and track.
Car and Driver reports an MSRP of $608,358 for the 2025 Revuelto, placing it firmly in flagship territory but below the stratospheric pricing of limited-run hypercars. For prospective buyers, the practical takeaway is that the Revuelto represents Lamborghini’s most technologically ambitious production car, and the order book reflects it: securing an allocation at this point likely means joining a long queue.
Winkelmann’s Bigger Play: Hybridizing the Entire Range
The Revuelto is not an isolated experiment. It represents the first step in the hybridization of Lamborghini’s entire model range. The Urus SE followed with its own plug-in hybrid system, and the Temerario, the Huracán replacement, adopts a twin-turbo V8 with electric assistance. Sant’Agata Bolognese is rebuilding its entire lineup around electrification, and the Chelsea premiere was designed to make that transition feel like a celebration rather than a concession.
Winkelmann’s strategy becomes clearer against the competitive landscape. Ferrari’s SF90 Stradale, the most obvious rival, pairs a twin-turbo V8 with three electric motors. It is a brilliant car, but it abandoned the naturally aspirated engine and the higher cylinder count. Lamborghini chose the opposite path: keep the V12, keep the natural aspiration, and use electrification to add power and fill in the torque curve rather than replace displacement. Whether that approach ages better depends on future emissions regulations, but for the buyers in that Chelsea room, it was exactly the message they wanted to hear.
The V12 is an iconic symbol for Lamborghini, its future beginning in 1963 with the debut of the 350GT. Sixty years later, the company is betting that the engine’s emotional pull justifies the engineering complexity of wrapping a hybrid system around it rather than downsizing. Given that Road & Track named the Revuelto its 2025 Performance Car of the Year, the early verdict suggests the bet is paying off.
Stephan Winkelmann, CEO of Automobili Lamborghini, stands beside the new Revuelto at its US debut event.
What the NYC Premiere Tells Us About Lamborghini’s Customer Playbook
Most supercar launches follow a predictable script: global reveal at a major show, regional press drives a few months later, customer deliveries trailing behind. Lamborghini compressed that timeline to a single week for its most important market. The move reflects a broader shift in how ultra-luxury brands manage their highest-value clients. When a customer is committing north of $600,000 to a car they cannot yet drive, the brand experience surrounding the order becomes part of the product itself.
The Ad Personam wall at the Chelsea event was not decorative. It was functional sales infrastructure disguised as art. Lamborghini’s personalization program allows buyers to specify exterior colors, interior materials, stitching patterns, and trim finishes far beyond what a standard configurator offers. Presenting those options in person, alongside the actual car and the executives who built it, turns an evening reception into a specification session.
For LamboCars readers watching from outside the velvet rope, the takeaway is straightforward. The Revuelto’s commercial success appears secure, the hybrid V12 architecture will define Lamborghini’s flagship identity for years to come, and the company is investing heavily in making the buying process feel as exclusive as the car itself. Whether that exclusivity extends to future limited editions built on the Revuelto platform remains to be seen, but the foundation Lamborghini laid in Chelsea looks solid enough to support them.
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