Sant’Agata Bolognese, Italy - Controversy erupted among fans when Porsche first launched its Cayenne, but the SUV has since become a cash cow for the German sports car specialist, and now the same thing appears to be happening in the Lamborghini stable of the VW empire.
Lamborghini managed to increase its worldwide sales by 96 percent in the first half of 2019, versus the same period last year. This growth was largely driven by the Urus, which accounted for 2693 of the 4553 cars that the Italian marque sold during that period. This was a record figure for Lamborghini, even surpassing the total tally for the whole of 2017.
The Huracán was the company’s most popular supercar during the first half of 2019, with 1211 sales, while the Aventador accounted for 649 sales.
Lamborghini’s largest market is still the USA, followed by China, the UK, Japan and Germany, while the American region saw the strongest growth, at 128 percent, followed by Asia Pacific.
Radical departure
It’s not only the Urus’s body style that makes it a radical departure for the marque. Whereas Lambos are normally powered by V10 and V12 engines, the SUV is motivated by a lower-revving twin-turbo V8 that produces 478kW at 6000rpm and 850Nm form 2250rpm. But it’s still incredibly fast, with Lamborghini quoting a 3.6 second 0-100km/h sprint and 305km/h top speed.
The engine is mated to an eight-speed ZF automatic gearbox and rear-biased all-wheel-drive system, and the vehicle is also fitted with a rear-wheel steering system as well as six-mode adaptive damping.