Described by Lamborghini as the sportiest SUV of them all, the Urus has big shoes to fill. Not only does it have to prove itself off the beaten track as the rightful successor of the LM002, but the incoming Lamborghini Urus is key to doubling production to 7,000 vehicles per year by 2019.
The latest teaser for the “Super SUV” sees chief project managemet officer Matteo Ortenzi drop two clues about the Urus, including the automaker’s commercial expectation for the high-riding brawler. “The Urus was the trigger for a change in the mentality within the company,” he says, thus suggesting that the days of low-volume production are over.
As for the biggest difficulty Matteo’s team had during the development process, that would be “maintaing the Lamborghini spirit.” Reading between the lines, the wording indicates two things. First and foremost, it wasn’t easy to adapt the MLB Evo platform of the Audi Q7 and Bentley Bentayga to suit the Lamborghini Urus. And secondly, Matteo refers to the performance anyone would expect from a full-blooded Lamborghini.
To this effect, the Urus comes with the Porsche-developed 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8. In the second-generation Panamera, the 3,996-cc engine develops 550 PS (542 hp) and 770 Nm (568 lb-ft) in the Turbo and Turbo S E-Hybrid. There’s room for improvement, however, with the Urus confirmed to deliver 650 ponies if not more from its eight-cylinder lump.
On that note, the teaser shows the V8 fit snuggly into the engine bay. Then there's the big question: how will Lamborghini find the space needed by the V8-powered plug-in hybrid powertrain confirmed to go into production in 2019? Considering that Lamborghini is responsible for the fastest production car to lap the ‘Ring, the engineers will find a way to pull it off.
On a related note, the successor of the Huracan will be hybridized in one way or another. And if the rumor mill is to be believed, the Nuova E-Spada is coming as a plug-in hybrid 2+2 coupe riding on the Panamera’s MSB platform.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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