Like most carmakers, Lamborghini likes to reference its greatest hits when talking about new models, particularly those that can be said to exemplify its brand DNA. Lamborghini has many such highlights to call upon. But with all due respect to the '80s-era LM002, it has never had a car quite like the Urus. The super-SUV is the primary reason why the firm reached 10,000 units in total sales volume last year, and why it will do so again this year. Probably no employee of Sant'Agata Bolognese - diehard car fans to a man - would call it their favourite Lamborghini, although if you asked them which variant they’d like to bet their mortgage on succeeding, you might get a different answer.
So the Urus marches steadily on, its arrival in the electrified age as inevitable as a future email from HMRC. With the new SE, Lamborghini has completed the hybridisation of its entire lineup; an impressive achievement when you consider the laggardly progress of some rivals. Of course, much like the new Bentley Continental GT we drove last week, the Urus’s adoption of plug-in technology is less about enhancing efficiency than it is about preserving the life span of the V8 that it is connected to. Exactly the same 4.0-litre V8 as in the Bentley, in fact - albeit with 620hp (and 800hp overall) in the Urus to safeguard Lamborghini’s powerhouse reputation.
This cutting and pasting of powertrains is familiar enough by now (the Porsche Cayenne has obviously shared a great deal with the Urus since its inception) yet it is also a reminder that even the flagship brands in the VW Group tend to only get one or two unique configurations of engine to call their own. So the hardware installed in the SE is already familiar (including the 190hp electric motor housed in the dual-clutch transmission and a 25.9kWh battery above the rear axle) and so too is the projected use case: Lamborghini doesn’t necessarily expect its buyers to diligently plug in their plug-in hybrid, and nor does it anticipate them fixating on the economical benefits, such as they are. What they will expect is a proper Urus. Hence the point-making decision to launch the facelifted car at Nardo, arguably Europe’s most famous proving ground.
It is also why the manufacturer has gone to the trouble of swapping out the old Torsen centre differential for something more adaptive and modern. The headline claim for the ‘hang-on’ electro-hydraulic multi-plate clutch now moving power fore and aft was ‘higher agility’, although the other upshot of its relationship with a new limited-slip E differential on the rear axle was hardly hidden under a bushel: Lamborghini targeting ‘on demand oversteering’ to leave no one in doubt about the pedigree of what it considers a ‘purebred super sports car’. And while the two-and-a-half-tonne Urus ultimately fits that description about as well as a Sumo wrestler fits into a triathlete’s singlet, it does at least tell you that its maker takes the ethos no less seriously than Bentley does grand touring in the Continental GT.
To this end, the Urus is a good deal more contemptuous of its ‘EV Drive’ than the GT. There at least the silent running setting is woven credibly into the Bentley way of doing things; in the Lamborghini, though it too defaults to battery-electric running initially, the lack of V8 accompaniment effectively deactivates the giant ‘tamburo’ lever that offers a choice of three tarmac and three off-road modes. The implication could hardly be more clear: drive the SE (up to 37 miles) in struck-dumb format if you like, but let’s not pretend it’s what the Urus is all about. Perhaps it’s no surprise then that 356lb ft of nearly instantaneous torque - which honestly seemed perfectly adequate in the GT - is suddenly made to feel like a pedalo powering the Seawise Giant.
Of course this might also have something to do with mindset. The Urus (by design, clearly) is not a car for ambling dreamily about the place. It’s like driving a hockey puck. This despite the fact that Lamborghini has actually loosened up the dynamic shackles considerably since the very first iteration, which rode like a trolley jack. The SE, on optional 23s, is tightly controlled but perfectly liveable, especially in the Strada setting that Lamborghini concedes Urus drivers currently spend around 80 per cent of their time in, and very nice to sit in courtesy of its plush sports seats and endless contrast stitching. It retains a healthy quota of physical switchgear despite the introduction of a slightly larger 12.3-inch touchscreen, and is therefore easy to get to grips with. But everything it seems is arranged or configured with some degree of leash-straining intent. I’ve been on waltzers that were more laid back.
Whether or not you buy into this wham-bam attitude will likely determine whether or not the hybridised Urus is for you. Because it is the overriding theme even when the car is making legitimate attempts to not consume its fuel tank in one messy gulp. Selecting Strada fires up the car’s Hybrid mode, which is a mixed bag, sometimes feeling like the delivery is tapering to better suit the e-motor than your right foot - and sometimes abandoning the strategy altogether and calling the V8 cavalry sooner than it might because it thinks you want to party. Probably a very stop-start test route can shoulder some of the blame here. But a measured interaction of battery and engine - ostensibly what you’re paying for - feels more sideshow than main event.
In Sport, one absurdly noisy clack away on the tamburo, Lamborghini gives it the full heave. The V8 is now permanently on tap and as wildly present as a Buddhist monk. What little lag there might have been is tasered into insignificance by the electric motor, and it doesn’t take too many lunges at the horizon for the manufacturer’s claim of 701lb ft of combined torque from 1,750rpm to seem credible, nor the idea that it can get to 62mph in 3.4 seconds. Nor indeed its insistence regarding a newly rear-biased attitude. Even in a market littered with SUVs that flatter to deceive when it comes to rotation, the SE clearly wants to be thought the sideways monkey (technical term). Unlike the much more neutral Corsa setting that sits above it in terms of seriousness, Sport lets it all hang out. Quite literally: you’ll think the first roundabout you come to was made of glass.
Of course, it isn’t; it’s just Lamborghini having (tightly controlled) fun with a more permissive stability control setting and a newly proactive 4WD system that’s now clever enough to make calculated assumptions about what you might want to do when there’s a certain amount of steering lock applied and throttle inputted and so on. So if you’re that way inclined, the car takes about a nanosecond to suss you out, and around the back end comes. As you might expect, this transfer of power to the outside rear doesn’t exactly feel organic - but it isn’t unfriendly or unpredictable either. Certainly it makes this Urus seem more nimble than any previous variant and impressively mobile with it. And it would be hard to call it incongruous given the car’s hepped-up way of doing things generally.
Truthfully, more time needs to be spent trying it out on proper roads for anything like a definitive verdict. Ending the day at Nardo was invigorating for the dent it left in Lamborghini’s tyre budget - but discovering that the car will indeed hold a lurid slide if you switch everything out and pay no mind to where you might end up is probably of limited value to the end user. Ditto the time spent on the grin-inducing gravel of the Strada Bianca course - although, credit where it’s due, if we’re talking about technological bandwidth, there’s no denying that the SE has flagons of the stuff: precious few cars will indulge a ham-fisted Sebastion Loeb impression (parody, really) one minute and then deposit loved ones, mostly unflustered, to the school gates the next. You might even get a modestly good MPG if you choose not to charge the battery via the engine (which it will cheerily do to 80 per cent).
At this stage though, it’s probably enough to say that, in its most animated moments, the hybrid Urus does a good job of making you forget it’s a hybrid at all. Which, you suspect, will be enough for some of its customers - and helps explain why the initial production run is already sold out. From their point of view, it is to Lamborghini’s credit (as it was Bentley’s) that it has sought a way to make the Urus more rewarding to drive in spite of the additional weight and complexity it has absorbed in the name of progress. The fact that it doesn’t particularly shine in EV mode (or even as a conventional hybrid) might ultimately be as redundant as pointing out that the latest Urus is not going to qualify as everyone’s cup of tea. We knew this much coming in. And for whatever else it is, this is still very much an SUV in Lamborghini's image - which, no matter what components it shares, makes it quite unlike anything else.
Specification | 2024 Lamborghini Urus SE
Engine: 3,996cc twin-turbocharged V8, electric motor, 25.9kWh battery
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch, all-wheel drive
Power (hp): 800 combined (620@6,000rpm)
Torque (lb ft): 701 combined (590@2,000-4,500rpm)
0-62mph: 3.4sec
Top speed: 194mph
Weight: 2,505kg
MPG: 135.8
CO2: 51g/km
Price: from £208,000
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