It’s official: Lamborghini is entering the high-end luxury SUV game with a model set to hit showrooms by 2018.
The new SUV will be assembled in Lamborghini’s home of Sant’Agata Bolognese, Italy, and is the result of a joint collaboration between the Italian automaker, national and regional governments, Volkswagen and Audi, and union representatives.
The SUV will be the third model in Lamborghini’s lineup, a feat CEO Stephan Winklemann says “endorses the stable and sustainable growth of the company,” while also signifying “the beginning of a new era” for the automaker.
To bring the yet-to-be-named product to the showroom, Lamborghini said it would invest “hundreds of millions of Euros” over the SUV’s lifecycle toward factory development and expansion. The factory where it will be assembled will go from an area of 80,000 square meters to 150,000, and will see a new assembly line and warehousing. R&D is set for an expansion, as well as the addition of 500 new jobs plus opportunities for the national and international supply chains as a result of the SUV.
[Source: 72Dino/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0]
Rambo Lambo: First Blood Part II
Wouldn’t that be Second Blood?
Rambo never struck me as being too good with the book learnin’….
Canadians don’t understand Rambo math.
Man VW did a bang up job of updating the Gremlin..Way to go VW.
WOW!!!!
Now my wife can get the kids to school on time!!
Headline should be Re-Enters SUV Market:
“The Lamborghini LM002 is an SUV that was built by the Lamborghini automobile company between 1986 and 1993. “
They could get Gadaffi and Uday Hussein to endorse it. Oh wait…
I’d rather have a pristine LM than this thing! You can put stuff in the truck bed of the LM, and people won’t hate you for driving a Lambo if it’s one of those.
SUV? It has the proportions (well, some of them) of a slightly vintage car, a good thing in my book. At least from this angle, it doesn’t look overwrought and gaudy. Depending on price and interior (can you actually put four adults in it?), I expect they’ll sell quite a few of them. Just ask Porsche.
Looks like a hatchback to me, at least from this angle. Of course, calling it a hatchback would bollix the marketing.
It’s the new upcoming segment of the AUC, AWD Utility Coupe. I’m predicting this now, and I’ve said it before! This is where we’re headed.
I know they made that crazy SUV thing back inthe 80s,but at least that thing was mad, bat-shiat, insane, take-no-prisoners crazy. This? this is just comically sad.
If machine gun mounts are an option, I’m interested.
For anyone who wants to spend a lot of money to get an SUV that looks like a CUV.
More like a CUV that looks like a Subaru on drugs.
It looks like it won’t do anything SUVs “should” do well, except extract dollars from the accounts of the gullible.
Suburban room for passengers and cargo? Nope.
Ground clearance? Not much.
Tire sidewalls for off-pavement or rough roads? Not at all.
Performance? Yeah, most likely very good. Not that the target audience (girlfriends and wives of the guy making the lease payments) would ever use much of it.
Handling on a track? Better than most SUVs, but worse than anything else, due to its high center of gravity.
So it’s not off-road sporty, not track sporty, not very practical, probably extremely pricey and very thirsty, and who knows if it will be even as reliable as a VW?
Conclusion: An SUV for those who don’t want an SUV, but are willing to pay out the nose just to get a legendary name.
In some ways the SUV/CUV boom is akin to the personal luxury coupe revolution of the 70’s. Less practical vehicles, but good at looking opulent.
“Suburban room for passengers and cargo? Nope.
Ground clearance? Not much.
Tire sidewalls for off-pavement or rough roads? Not at all.
Performance? Yeah, most likely very good. Not that the target audience (girlfriends and wives of the guy making the lease payments) would ever use much of it.
Handling on a track? Better than most SUVs, but worse than anything else, due to its high center of gravity.”
My only answer is so what? No car by Lamborghini is practical in any way. Lamborghini is built for emotional resonance. If you don’t feel it, I’m dissapointed. Gullable has zero to do with it. I am in no way shopping in this category, let alone going to spend that kind of money. But it’s still awesome and raw like nothing else.
I don’t feet the emotional resonance.
I’ve maintained several custom-engineered supercomputers which cost as much as a Ferrari.
It seems like a Ferrari has all of the hassles of those supercomputers, without the ability to fundamentally advance human knowledge. Owning a Ferrari just sounds like spending $250k for the privelege of spending a couple of extra hours at the office every day.
I’ll pass.
P.S. Come to think of it, there is some emotional resonance here! Just not the kind you were implying….
Looks like a Lambo-Acura love child to me
I’d really appreciate it if Lamborghini made a car large enough for men my size. You know: like Football players, Wrestlers, Basketball stars and anyone else who makes tons of money and wants to SHOW OFF.
Arthur Jones for example, isn’t a very large man and he bought a Corvette – and had to take it back because it was too small.
Why not actually CHASE AFTER PEOPLE WITH THAT MUCH MONEY BY BUILDING MORE PRACTICAL PRODUCTS?
YES Caps Lock.
BIGGER IS BETTER.
And that’s why Hellcats sell out.
I’m 6’5 and 325#, and I didn’t have any complaints about the Murcielago.
The Huracan is a little harder to get into than a Gallardo, but that thing is TINY.
“Arthur Jones for example, isn’t a very large man and he bought a Corvette – and had to take it back because it was too small. ”
Not sure who that is, but I’m guessing he isn’t a very smart man either. Was there really no time to sit in a Corvette before signing the papers?
Or maybe he realized that there’s a big difference between the Corvette you dream about as a kid and the one in your driveway. For instance, the one in your driveway is useless in 99% of road conditions, whereas the dream one has a pillowy soft ride.
Well if he’s taking about Arthur Jones, the Defensive End for the Indianapolis Colts, he’s wrong about Mr Jones’ size. 6’3″ and 335 lbs is a big dude.
Once again, the Hellcat has NOTHING to do with this car. This car has ZERO to do wih why Hellcats sell out. Seriously, are you getting paid just to say hellcat in every post? To even imply comparison is absolutely ridiculous.
6’3″ 335 is NOTHING.
I’m 6’6″ and weigh more than him.
The average American male is around 5’10” and 200 lbs. 6’3″ and 335 lbs is significantly larger.
I’m almost as tall as you, but weigh almost 100 lbs less than Arthur Jones. I would consider him a large man.
So, you have what, 3 inches and (undisclosed) lbs on him, so obviously that’s NOTHING! Because when they design Supercars (and, for that matter, regular cars) they need to do it for someone who represents less than 3% of the population of potential buyers?
Get real. Bentley solved this ‘problem’ a decade ago with the Conti GT, and I see no shortage of pro-ball players with multi-million-dollar contracts frequenting the Lambo dealership. Clarkson may not have your apparently prodigious girth, but he’s had no issues driving the overwhelming majority of supercars manufactured in the last 20 years.
The Urus is simply the next step in a process that started with Grand Cherokee’s and Wagoneers in the 80’s, matured with Yukons and Escalades in the 90’s, and was refined with Cayennes and Land Rovers in the 00’s.
MARONE
BECAUSE…HELLCAT.
Too many critics here. I love it.
Exactly, I love this thing. It’s damned nice looking, especially when abominations like the new Cherokee exist.
The less we speak of the new Cherokee the better.
I seriously think it exists just to make the Grand Cherokee look even better. I know a guy who bought himself a JGC, and then bought the other one for his wife. That went well.
This angle looks great and probably looks like a Lambo xUV should look. My fear is that the rear end looks like an X6 given the sloping roofline and child-bearing hips.
This is exactly what an Eagle Talon would look like today.
This vehicle is perfect for one thing: identify who buys it and quarantine them for the betterment of humanity.
Looks like it’s going to beat Ferrari in the segment.
Looks exactly right. Feels Lamborghini.
Porsche will suffer a bit, but they’re years ahead.
Besides, the launching “joint collaboration” and communication reads more like a Brusselian ministers’ gathering than any danger to current car-builders’ elephants.
“Porsche will suffer, but they’re years ahead.”
They’re the same company. Will they really suffer?
I will bet that this shares more than a few bits with Cayenne. I’d even go so far as to call the the ZDX to the Cayenne’s MDX.
Porsche won’t suffer. You have to buy the top of the line Cayenne Turbo S to get into this price range. The Uris’ MSRP is estiamted at $150-200k. They are really much further apart than the price implies.
I’m afraid they’re going to overprice it to silly hights.
Volkswagen surely wouldn’t complain… and in fact does concurr.
If only they could keep the price within bounds of industrial reason… yet I’m afraid this is all leading to “Melody Lee” sort of air marketing…
A good car, powerful, built in small to medium serie comes with a price that doesn’t have to reach football team proportions.
“I’m afraid they’re going to overprice it to silly hights.”
Well, Lamborghini hasn’t been known for budget pricing its cars.
I actually think this looks too pedestrian for a Lambo SUV/CUV. They should take Batman’s Tumbler, add another set of doors and stick the charging bull badge on it.
More exciting than Batman’s Tumbler, really.
More dreamable.
But you get the idea : if this is going to be just an Excel achieved, price tag aura thing, then automotive industry will loose an opportunity again.
There’s a way to make a good high-end car out of this, bringing some danger to the biggies and barons…. while expensive, but kind of, in the dream also : affordable.
Frankly I don’t really care about 350+ kmh circuits-bound formulas Merlin powered wonders. Won’t even enjoy drive them to the full. When I’m really rich I’ll have better ideas. Don’t want to beat my neighbour’s oil or casino principauté’s landslide spendings.
I hope Lamborghini finds a way to offer a deal with this one, that’s dreamable, simply.
That thing is awesome. The only thing I do not like is the Evoque roofline. I’d take it in a heartbeat and anyone that says otherwise should stick with their Camry.
Reminds me of the Micro-Machines toy cars from the late 80’s. I think it looks pretty sweet and I’m sure Lamborghini owners will welcome an all weather option.
If the profits from this thing can pay for an eventual sedan derived from the Lamborghini Estoque (even if built on the Panamera’s chassis)…..go for it.
It’s a true Lamborghini. There’s no way to see out the back at all. That’s keeping it real for the bull. Side view… cameras? OK, maybe you can see “out the back” on a screen. Does a camera really need that much stalk to provide a view to replace a mirror? That’s just strange for the sake of strange.
Lambo looks to be gunning for that lucrative Crosstour market that Honda foolishly abandoned.
More proof of the truth that a lot of wealthy people possess much more money than they do sense, and the result is the compulsion to continually buy things that practically scream, “Look at me!”
The owner of my company owns a Lambo. Each year, he brings it out in April and it is immediately loaded on a company truck and shipped to a dealer in Chicago for detailing and routine maintenance. The annual cost (I’m an accountant, I pay the bills) is between $5K and $8K.
Profligacy.
Hence the term ‘stupid rich.”
I forgot to add that this thing is “Kill it with fire” hideously overwrought.
I predict they will sell dozens.
While I do have a problem with Bentley and Aston making SUVs, as I mentioned before Lambo has always been about being ridiculous and doing whatever they want. Thus, we shouldn’t criticize them for this choice. They’re just going for where the crazy rich money is sitting currently, and in that sense they nailed it.