First Drive: The Newest Lamborghini Urus Hybrid Makes Driving Easy—Maybe Too Easy
Continuing its quest to consistently aggrandize the character of each of its products to better reflect its obsession with more, Lamborghini has officially released an updated iteration of its Urus ultra-SUV, the Urus SE plug-in hybrid. Now, after driving it on a private off-road course and through the rural and coastal public roads of Puglia, Italy, we can say with certainty that the new $275,000 (estimated price), 789 hp truckster successfully accomplishes its mission—though we’re not sure that is always a good thing.
The Urus SE sports new LED matrix headlights inspired by the horns of the brand’s raging bull icon, 23-inch rims inspired by copper snowflakes, a narrower dash, switchgear inspired obliquely by aviation, and a substantially de-creased hood. Yet the net result does not offer much aesthetic improvement to what some of us feel is one of the most awkwardly styled vehicles in the contemporary automotive landscape. (To be fair, the same could be said for the Ferrari Purosangue, Rolls-Royce Cullinan, and Bentley Bentayga.)
More from Robb Report
Still, the Urus remains differentiated (compellingly so, to several thousand buyers around the globe) from anything else on the road. This is apparently true even for Italians, who have been served a consistent diet of funky automotive styling for 125 years. As we drove through a beach town in the final gasps of its swimming season, a lifeguard caught sight of our Bianco Carico–colored Urus, brought his thumb and fingers together in a pyramid, shook them in front of his face, and literally called out, “Mama Mia!”
Perhaps he was simply responding to the car’s obstreperous nature. We’re driving through town in Sport mode—one of six options for the settings that adjust the engine, transmission, suspension, and exhaust—which allows sharp pop-offs when one lifts off the accelerator. Lamborghinis are not made for people who dislike scrutiny, which is why the marque’s palette includes lurid colors like Verde Mantis, Viola Galaxias, and Blu Uranus, and sees many customers electing “extreme personalization” with highly profitable custom liveries.
The Urus SE builds power in a manner that could be called explosive if it weren’t so linear. This is the result of volatile collaboration between the 612 hp twin-turbo V-8 engine and the 189 hp electric motor bolted between it and the transmission, both driving all four wheels (together or individually) in whatever manner ekes out the greatest grip and performance. If that setup sounds familiar, it’s because it is, with the same basic configuration finding home in current VW Group relatives, such as the Porsche Cayenne as well as Bentley’s Flying Spur and Continental GT. Chassis and engine tuning separates the siblings, and we have no significant complaints about its application in the Urus, as it satisfies the corporate and regulatory requirement for part-time zero-emissions vehicles.
The 22 kWh battery in the floor of the Urus should be able to provide between two- and three-dozen electric-only miles in U.S. spec. It also adds enough boost to outperform the increased weight compared with the outgoing S model. The additional 661 pounds (bringing the total wight to more than 5,500 pounds) is owed to the SE’s cells and motors. Still, the output is not enough to best the now-cancelled Performante variant. The SE will rush from zero to 60 mph in 3.4 seconds, eventually reaching a top speed of 194 mph. Impressive for such a big chunk of raw materials.
The model variant’s on-road manners are divergent from other vehicles in the brand’s stable, in that they are, well, extremely stable. Power delivery, suspension tuning, and handling are almost contrite in Strada (Street) mode and borderline lethargic in pure EV mode. Things become increasingly tetchy in Sport and Corsa (Track) settings, but never too aggressive for around town tooling, which is how we know nearly all Urus examples will be utilized. Other settings reserve or recharge the onboard battery. All in all, it’s not pedestrian, but it’s certainly the easiest Lamborghini to drive in the marque’s eruptive and disruptive history.
The Urus SE shares its off-road capabilities not only with its progenitor, the LM002 (aka the Rambo Lambo) of the 1980s and 1990s—a profligate Countach-engined four-door pickup originally engineered as a potential military vehicle—but also with the more recent Huracán Sterrato, a jacked-up, knobby-tired, light-barred iteration of the brand’s “entry level” coupe. We loved driving that one in the knee-high sand of the California desert, and equally enjoyed time behind the wheel of the SE, rooster-tailing sprays of silica across the wending off-road track at Puglia’s Nardo testing facility.
Credit for much of this joy goes to the SE’s two new tricks in the power train, an electric torque vectoring system, which shifts twist instantaneously between the front and rear tires, and an electronic limited-slip rear differential, which performs a not dissimilar schtick out back. These two bits conspire to provide the all-wheel-drive Urus with the swinging oversteer—the ability to unhinge the rear wheels from their driving surface—of an overpowered rear-wheel-drive sports car, a feat all Lamborghinis aspire to. They thus allowed us to power-slide and snap-flick through the dust like a very inexperienced and incompetent rally driver.
Will any Urus owner ever experience, say, drifting on such specially prepared surfaces? Unlikely. They will mainly enjoy owning an attention-garnering, questionably styled, highly practical Lamborghini. But might this capability influence their purchase decision? Of course. “Even if few of our clients do such things,” says a Lamborghini spokesperson about the likelihood of owners taking their supercars on track, “they like to know that they could.”
The Urus accounted for nearly two-thirds of the record-setting 10,000-plus Lamborghinis sold last year. According to the marque, 70 percent of its buyers were new to the brand, 40 percent were under 40 years of age, and 13 percent were women, meaning that it opened many new purchase pathways for the growing automaker. All of this may presage the future—the new Lambo lineup is now plug-in hybrid, and the fully electric Lanzador grand tourer will allegedly arrive in 2028. Yet Lamborghini’s real destiny remains the province of the extrovert, for whom too much will never be enough.
Click below for more photos of the Lamborghini Urus SE.
Best of Robb Report
Sign up for RobbReports's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Solve the daily Crossword
