2017: The Urus Takes the Lamborghini SUV Concept (Relatively) Mainstream
The Volkswagen Group scooped up Lamborghini for the now-incredibly-reasonable price of $110 million in 1998, placing it under the command of the Audi division in a move that the German company saw as a way to bolster both the four-ring brand’s sportiness and the Italian company’s quality and technology. The investment of capital and Teutonic industriousness quickly led to improved cars: the Murcielago, then the Gallardo, then the Aventador, then the Huracan, each moved the ball further down the field and re-established Lamborghini as a premier sports car company.
So it was a bit unexpected when, in late 2017, the carmaker revealed the production version of the Urus. Obviously, there was precedent for a Lambo SUV, and the company had even floated a V-10-powered Urus concept car in 2012. What made the Urus a bit of a curveball was that it was clearly built from the pieces in the VW Group’s corporate toolbox.
Even the Gallardo and Huracan had been made as Lamborghinis first before being adapted for Audi as the R8; the Urus, however, used the same platform as the Porsche Cayenne, Bentley Bentayga and Audi Q7 / Q8. The new Lambo SUV also used the same twin-turbo 4.0-liter V-8 as those models, and the same eight-speed automatic transmission. And while it offered off-road drive modes through a boat throttle-like selector, it only came with all-wheel-drive, and couldn’t deliver the same level of go-anywhere capability as the Rambo Lambo.
That said, it did certainly deliver Lamborghini-like performance. The compact boosted eight-cylinder spat out 641 hp and 627 lb-ft at launch, more than any Porsche, Audi or Bentley powered by the motor made at the time. And it very much looked the part, wearing bodywork replete with the sharp angles, crisp folds and trapezoids that defined the supercars it shared a showroom with. Hardcore enthusiasts might turn up their nose and call it a gussied-up RS Q8, but to the public, it was just another Lamborghini.
And it turned out to be a popular one, at that. Demand proved insatiable, at least by Lambo levels, with Urus number 10,000 rolling off the line in mid-2020 and the 20,000th one being built about two years later, in summer 2022.
Shortly after that milestone, Lamborghini rolled out the first major improvement to the Urus line, in the form of the more track-oriented Urus Performante model. Sliding in above the “base model” (which was rebranded as Urus S), the engine was pumped up to 657 hp, while weight was cut by a tad over 100 pounds and the ride and handling revamped with a sharper suspension and fixed springs in lieu of the adjustable pneumatic ones.
Then, in the spring of 2024, Sant’Agata announced a midlife refresh for the Urus that brought a big change to the powertrain: the SUV was going PHEV, as part of a corporate plan to give every Lambo both a plug and a gas cap. The new Urus SE boasted a system — similar to that found in Porsche’s Cayenne Turbo E-Hybrid – delivered a combined 789 hp and 700 lb-ft of torque, enough to offset the 600-plus-pound weight gain of adding an electric motor and a hefty lithium-ion battery.
Yet while the new system may seem an odd choice for an outgoing, high-performance SUV often heard popping off gunshot downshifts around town, it should future-proof Lambo’s crossover against rising emissions regulations and help it maintain its place as a profit driver that lets the company keep building supercars. Indeed, the Urus has proved popular enough, it’s even begun rubbing off on the sports cars in the company’s lineup. In 2023, Lamborghini released the Huracan Sterrato, a version of the AWD V-10 supercar with a lift kit, off-road-ready tires, and SUV-style fender flares to catch flying gravel. How’s that for full circle?
Credit: robbreport.com
