I vividly remember Lamborghini showing the series-production Urus in December 2017, a sport utility vehicle previewed by a similarly named concept in 2012. There was plenty of negative sentiment around the Raging Bull's take on the Volkswagen Touareg, but as you're well aware, the naysayers didn't manage to make the slightest of dents in the brand's reputation.
Though based on the MLB Evo platform of the aforementioned Volkswagen Touareg, the Italian sport utility vehicle is a different animal from its MLB Evo siblings, including the Porsche Cayenne and Bentley Bentayga. It's also way different from the LM002 before it, a V12-powered collossus built around a tubular space frame. From the outset, the Urus was developed to handle better than every SUV in production back in 2018, and it did not disappoint. As of 2023, the Ferrari Purosangue has got it soundly beat in this particular department.
Powered by a Porsche-Audi V8, the Urus can be had in two distinct flavors at press time, namely the Urus S and Urus Performante. Both of them use the aforementioned eight-cylinder lump in combination with an eight-speed automatic supplied by ZF, as in the award-winning 8HP introduced by the F01/F02 7er.
Stephan Winkelmann, the big kahuna at Lamborghini, made it clear that purely internal combustion vehicles don't have a place in the automaker's lineup after 2024. That means the Urus S and Performante will be discontinued by 2025, along with the Huracan. The V10-engined supercar will be replaced by a successor with plug-in hybrid muscle. Hearsay suggests a twin-turbo V8 in place of the naturally-aspirated V10, a brand-new engine reportedly capable of 10,000 rpm.
The Urus, which is Lamborghini's most profitable model yet, is also getting a plug-in hybrid setup. Filmed by carparazzo Varryx doing its thing outside of the factory in Sant'Agata Bolognese, the black-painted prototype in the video below is equipped with high-voltage stickers. The charging port door is visible on the driver-side rear wing, and the quad-piped exhaust channels yucky stuff to the tune of a twin-turbo V8.
We don't know how much power and torque is hiding under the black-painted body shell, but we're pretty sure that Lamborghini copied Porsche's homework. More specifically, the Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid that pumps out a massive 690 ponies and 641 pound-feet (870 Nm) on full song. The Italian automaker needs to pay attention especially to what BMW has done to the XM Label Red, which is rated at 738 ponies and a simply ludicrous 738 pound-feet (1,000 Nm).
Varryx also caught a camouflaged prototype of the Revuelto passing by, a car that shouldn't be camouflaged in the first place. Lamborghini revealed its Aventador-replacing supercar in March 2023. What's more, the prototype is a coupe rather than a convertible, with the second body style expected to drop next year. What could be the Raging Bull testing here other than a higher-performing variant of its flagship supercar?
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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