Lamborghini’s CEO on How Its Bestseller ‘Took a Lot of Convincing’


Despite launching the super SUV category, the team at Lamborghini understands that its sport utility vehicles are not going to be used for standard off-roading activities. Sure, the LM002—Lambo’s original brute ute of 1980s and ’90s fame—had three locking differentials, but no one was aiming those 33-inch Pirelli Scorpion tires at anything other than asphalt. Despite a quarter-century interregnum between the LM002 and Lambo’s next SUV, the 2018 Urus, the engineering brief remained the same: a singular focus on fast driving, regardless of the surface.
The original Urus was a success, to say the least, as evidenced by its being named Robb Report’s 2019 Car of the Year. Then came the Urus S and Performante variants, and, most recently, the Urus SE. The latter, a 789 hp V-8 hybrid, already has a waiting list of two years. The Urus is Lamborghini’s best-selling model in ages. The 5,900 examples sold in 2023, for example, accounted for 60 percent of the marque’s overall annual production. Moreover, the Urus brings new clients to Sant’Agata Bolognese: 70 percent were first-time Lamborghini customers.
The 789 hp Lamborghini Urus SE hybrid in action.
Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A.
While testing the new Urus SE at the Nardo Ring in Puglia, Italy, the same proving grounds where the plug-in hybrid was refined and validated, we spoke with Lamborghini’s chief executive officer, Stephan Winkelmann, and chief technical officer, Rouven Mohr, about how the success of the Urus was very much engineered.
The aim of the Urus was always to stabilize the Lamborghini brand. In 2012, when the Urus concept was introduced, it wasn’t immediately accepted. “Then, it took a lot of convincing,” says Winkelmann. “If you’ve only done two-door supercars for decades, you have to find the money and business case which enables you to look to the future.” That fiscal investment, per Winkelmann, required a lot of deep diving into the brand’s DNA, alongside cost analysis. “A small brand cannot allow failure,” he adds. Those close to the numbers saw a path to profit, though it took several years for the market acceptance to be high enough to warrant the investment.
Stephan Winkelmann, global CEO of Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A., at the debut of the Urus Performante during Monterey Car Week in 2022.
Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A.
The engineering focus was also a key factor to its ultimate appeal. Engineers prioritized imbuing emotions, not traditional off-road capabilities. “Off-road capabilities were the goal of the LM002,” says Mohr. “But with the Urus, the focus isn’t real off-road; it’s not a Jeep or a Range Rover, where climbing is required. The Urus is capable of that, but the point was to give you more emotion as you drive fast over asphalt, snow, or gravel.”
To that end, the Urus SE has a reworked drivetrain that ditches the mechanical Torsen center differential from prior Urus iterations in favor of an electro-hydraulic hang-on system that can instantly shift torque laterally and between the axles. “The degree of freedom this affords is exceptional and, as a result, the car feels more agile and more precise,” says Mohr.
Rouven Mohr, chief technical officer for Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A.
Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A.
According to Mohr, while the handoff between the electric motor and the combustion engine must be imperceptible, everything else must adhere to traditional Lamborghini DNA in terms of driving feel. “We don’t want everything as smooth as possible,” Mohr explains. “We want a sharp character. For example, during a shifting maneuver you should feel a little push. We do this by stiffening the engine mounts but also designing the clutches to close more roughly.”
The 657 hp Urus S.
Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A.
The bulk of validation testing was done virtually, in computers via driving simulators. With proper definition to aspects such as energy and torque management, Mohr believes 80 percent of quality can be accurately assessed virtually. The remainder of validation happens here, Mohr notes, gesturing to the Nardo Ring facilities around us at the time of our conversation.
The original Lamborghini Urus SUV, Robb Report’s 2019 Car of the Year.
Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A.
“Here, we have emotional test drives,” he says, adding that it’s at this location where engineers can first feel how sharp the car can turn on the new four-wheel-drive system. “You can analyze how fast the car turns by looking at the yaw angle and the behavior of the front axle to the rear axle, and whether those numbers hit our target values. But there’s a remaining 10 percent of development which is subjective and emotional,” says Mohr. “It can hit the numbers, but does it make your stomach react? If yes, then we know we had the right concept.”
A convoy of Urus Performante examples take part in the marque’s approximately 560-mile Esperienza Avventura drive in China.
Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A.
Ask Winkelmann if there’s any concerns within the Volkswagen parent company about segment cannibalization—if buyers are opting for an Urus over a Bentley, for example—and he’s quick to shake his head. “There’s no worry. It’s an additional car for most, not a replacement,” he says. When queried about Ferrari’s Purosangue as a competitor, Winkelmann dismisses the notion. “That’s a different type of car, in my opinion,” he says. “The Urus has five seats and it’s a bigger car.”
The gamble for Lamborghini is still paying rich dividends in a current automotive market marked by uncertainty. “It’s ongoing and positive that [our clients] are people below 40, and the percentage of women is increasing,” says Winkelmann. “We’re a small brand that entered a big segment. Our sales numbers have exceeded our expectations.” Much as the original Urus certainly exceeded ours.
Click here for more photos of the Lamborghini Urus model line.
Authors
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Sean Evans
Sean’s an automotive scribe living in New York who is as shocked as you are that it’s possible to still make a living writing. There’s a folder on his computer just for photos of sad sloths. Find him…