Lamborghini Urus review

If this review were a fairy tale, it would begin something like this: once upon a time, the Lamborghini Urus was the maddest of all the sports SUVs. With an exterior that was pointier than a gundog, and a bark to match from its tailpipes, you couldn’t help but notice the Urus everywhere it went – and it mesmerised and thrilled all those who encountered it. 

But then, one day, Lamborghini did something even crazier than building such a madcap SUV in the first place – it turned the Urus into an eco-friendly, plug-in hybrid (PHEV). The end. 

Except, it’s not the end. It is true that Lamborghini canned all the non-hybrid versions – the S and Performante – but the PHEV model, which is called the Urus SE, still has the same 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 at its heart. The difference now is the V8 is joined by an electric motor and, together, they produce nearly 800bhp. So rather than going all soft and cuddly, the SE hybrid is the most powerful Urus ever. 

That’s still not the end of the tale, though, because it does some eco-warrior stuff, too. It’ll travel up to 37 miles on battery power alone, and its exhaust emissions are ‘just’ 140g/km. Okay, that’s not going to pique the interest of Toyota Prius drivers, but it does make the most-powerful Urus ever the most efficient one as well. 

The styling is basically the same as it always was, but, coinciding with the arrival of the SE, there were a few subtle changes: a restyled nose and bonnet, a lightly reworked rear end and, inside, a bigger, 12.3in infotainment screen. 

Question: if you want the most extreme sports SUV money can buy, will you and the Urus live happily ever after, or has the shift to hybrid dulled the hedonism? Would you be better off with one of its rivals, which include the Audi RS Q8, Bentley Bentayga, or Porsche Cayenne? But all of those rivals share the same basic underpinnings with the Urus, so perhaps you'd be better off with something completely different, like the Aston Martin DBX or Range Rover Sport SV?

What’s new?

- May 2024: Urus SE plug-in hybrid on sale combining a 4.0-litre V8 engine, electric motor and 22kWh battery for a total 789bhp

- April 2024: Urus SE plug-in hybrid unveiled at Beijing Motor Show

- September 2022: Standard model is now Urus S with 657bhp

- August 2022: Urus Performante has 657bhp, 47kg lighter, recalibrated driving modes, revised aerodynamics

- April 2018: First UK deliveries take place. All cars have carbon ceramic brakes, adaptive air suspension, four-wheel drive, four-wheel steering, six driving modes

- December 2017: Production car debuts and orders open. Urus has a 641bhp twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8 engine, can do 0-62mph in 3.6 seconds, 189mph top speed

- April 2012: Urus concept shown at Beijing Motor Show

How fast is it and which engine is best?

Ever since Lamborghini canned the Urus S and Performante, the SE is the only powertrain on sale. And we use the term ‘powertrain’ advisedly, because the SE isn’t just furnished with a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8. It’s a PHEV, which means there’s an electric motor and a 22kWh (usable capacity) battery as well. The V8 actually produces slightly less power than it used to in the Performante (612bhp vs 666bhp), but add in the electric motor and the whole shebang adds up to 789bhp and 701lb ft of shove. That’s…quite a lot. 

It makes the SE the most powerful Urus ever but, oddly, not the quickest. That’s because of weight: the SE, with the addition of the hybrid battery and electric motor, is also the heaviest Urus ever. So in the end the extra power and weight more or less cancel each other out – 0-62mph takes 3.4sec in the SE, while the less powerful but lighter Performante took 3.3sec. 

If that’s a bit disappointing, maybe it’s time for some perspective. On paper, the Urus SE is still a smidge quicker than similar high-end sports SUVs, including the quickest Porsche Cayenne (the Turbo E-Hybrid GT Package), the Aston Martin DBX S, Audi RS Q8 and Bentley Bentayga Speed. 

On the road it feels breakneck quick. In the raciest drive modes, which maximise performance rather than efficiency, the electric motor gives you an instant kick when you hit the accelerator; then the V8 adds its barrel-chested, unrelenting surge – right up to 194mph if you have a runway long enough. There’s also an overtake button on the steering wheel that gives you a quick burst of heightened performance, and a launch control function to give you the perfect drag-race getaway.

The eight-speed automatic gearbox is quickfire through the gears in the sportier drive modes – way more so than the Aston Martin DBX’s auto ‘box – but it does take slightly longer to kickdown if the car’s in hybrid mode, running solely on the electric motor. 

In full electric mode, the Urus SE will do up to 84mph and feels more than brisk enough for mooching about urban environments. The official electric range is 37 miles, which isn’t great for a plug-in but, again, the hybrid system is more about performance than ultimate efficiency. Still, the Cayenne Turbo E-Hybrid manages nearly 45 miles (WLTP) using the same 22kWh battery. 

You can charge the battery up using the engine, which is pointless because it just burns more petrol. It’s more sensible to charge it from a home wall box, and a full charge takes around 3.5hrs. 

Is it agile and is the ride comfortable?

Agility is the Urus’s USP, which is amazing considering it weighs around 2.5 tonnes. You’d never know that from behind the wheel, though, because there’s a host of tech designed to overcome the basic physics of getting its sheer bulk to change direction and corner quickly. 

First off, the Urus is four-wheel drive, with a centre differential distributing the shove between its front and rear wheels; a subsidiary electronically limited-slip rear differential then meters out the grunt between each rear wheel. With all that in place, the Urus musters immense traction (the grip when you accelerate), but it can also feel rear-driven – and fun, like a sports car – by sending up to 100% of the shove to just the rear wheels. 

It’s more likely to do that in Sport mode because that’s the Urus’s playful setting. Sport deliberately makes the rear wheels more prone to sliding (oversteering) as you accelerate out of turns. Corsa mode (corsa is Italian for race) is the most focused mode. It’s the one you’d pick if you fancied taking to the track, for instance, because it keeps the handling as neat and tidy as possible to deliver the quickest lap times. 

The Urus also comes with adjustable air suspension and active anti-roll bars, which allow you to tune the ride for comfort or cornering. Strada mode (that’s street in Italian) is the most relaxed and comfortable setting for longer motorway jaunts. But, if you find yourself on a great B road, the ever-stiffer Sport and Corsa modes reduce body lean in bends, and pitch and dive when you accelerate and brake. You can also mix and match the settings: engine in Corsa for maximum straight-line performance; suspension in Sport (midway setting) for a bit more compliance. And oh boy does it all work.

Sport is the Urus’s goldilocks setting. It has enough ‘give’ to tackle a cambered, rutted British byway without things getting skittish. And that gives you oodles of confidence, which translates into an ability to cover ground extremely quickly. In fact, the suspension is so well judged that the stiffest Corsa mode isn’t jarring and totally usable on the road.  

All in all, the Urus is a more focused driver’s car than the Bentley Bentayga Speed and Range Rover Sport SV, and that’s as much down to the steering as it is the suspension. You feel lots of sensations through the steering wheel that percolate up from the tyres travelling over the road surface. And that’s important, why? Because it tells you intuitively when, for instance, you’re travelling over smooth tarmac, which tends to be more slippery, or a grainier surface that the tyres can bite into and yield more grip. 

The quickness of the steering makes this heavy car feel decidedly nimble, too, which is enhanced by the standard rear-wheel steering that sharpens up the Urus’s low-speed turn in (and makes the turning circle usefully tighter in town). The steering is lighter initially than the Cayenne’s, but weights up beautifully as you apply more lock.

Now, it would be really disappointing if a Lamborghini didn’t handle well: the real surprise is that it’s so comfortable. Okay, it's not quite as pillow-soft as the Bentayga, or even the DBX for that matter – you feel slightly more impacts from sharper bumps – but the Urus is so well controlled and settles so quickly after each disturbance that you’re never jostled around. It even rode well on our test car’s massive optional 23in wheels, and would no doubt be even better if you stuck with the standard 21in rims. 

Oh, and something that’s easy to forget is that it can go off-road as well. You get three further drive modes – Terra (dirt), Sabbia (sand), Neve (snow) – to tailor it to the conditions, and the air suspension raises the car to increase ground clearance. It’s not going to be as proficient as a Range Rover Sport SV in the rough, but it’ll travel farther through it than you might think.     

Is it quiet and how easy is it to drive smoothly?

Because the Urus is designed to be at the more focused end of the sports SUV spectrum – and it gives you all those informative sensations we talked about above – it’s slightly less relaxing at a cruise than, say, a Bentayga. But ‘less relaxing’ is a relative term. When you’re barreling along a motorway, the levels of wind and road noise are perfectly acceptable. And when it’s running in electric mode it’s eerily quiet for such a high-energy car. 

Of course, when the V8 is in full voice it’s far from quiet, and thank the Lord for that. Hearing its baritone bellow is all part of the fun, although it’s a slight shame some of the noise is augmented – it's piped through the speakers. You can specify an Akrapovic titanium sports exhaust for an even crisper tone, though. The gearbox is designed to shift quickly, which gives you a slight jolt on upshifts in Corsa mode, that also heightens the thrill of driving a Urus.

In fact, the only mild criticism concerns the standard carbon-ceramic brakes. If you’re in hybrid mode and the battery is low, the level of regenerative braking increases and slightly corrupts the brake-pedal feel. It’s harder to predict the pressure you need to apply to stop smoothly in traffic. 

However, in Sport or Corsa mode, and with the hybrid battery charged, you rely mostly on the friction brakes and less on the regenerative system. And then the brakes feel much better: firmer and more progressive. They are also very effective; despite needing to haul up 2.5 tonnes they’ll do so forcefully over and over again.

“Bearing in mind it weighs 2.5 tonnes, I was astounded by two aspects of the Lamborghini Urus, and neither concerned its relentless pace: how fun and nimble it feels and how settled and supple the ride can be. Both are tricky elements to manage in a tall, heavy SUV” – John Howell, Deputy Reviews Editor

What does the interior look like and is it well made?

Let’s set the scene by telling you – if you weren’t aware already – that the Lamborghini Urus is, in effect, an Audi RS Q8 underneath, but that’s true of the Bentley Bentayga and Porsche Cayenne, too. And that doesn’t just mean the same basic engine, gearbox and chassis, but also some of the interior switches. 

But Audi, to be fair, makes some of the best switchgear in the business, so is that really going to put you off? While the switches don’t look bespoke they feel great to use. You’ll notice other Audi-group parts, too, like the digital screen that works the climate controls, but Lamborghini has added slightly different graphics to that, the infotainment screen, and the digital driver’s display. 

Some of the changes involve the use of hexagons. Why? Well, it’s Lamborghini’s signature design. You see them everywhere: not only the digital renderings on the screens, but also elements including the heater vents and the seat stitching. And the overall effect is the Urus’s interior looks more flamboyant than an RS Q8 or Cayenne’s, and a million miles away from the Bentayga’s classical opulence. 

Speaking of opulence, that’s a weakness – at least considering the Urus’s outlandish price tag. It’ll set you back more than £200,000, and you can go to town adding your own twists, from the colour of the seatbelts or door interior handles, to the embroidery on the seats. But the basic build and material qualities don’t feel noticeably higher-grade than the cheaper Audi and Porsche variants and, arguably, weaker in places than an Aston Martin DBX. 

The centre-air vent housing, for example, flexes when you prod it and it's made from plastic that looks a bit cheap – although you can upgrade this to carbon trim for a fee. But there’s no doubt a Bentayga is a different kettle of fish because it feels deliciously special inside. So if it’s interior ambience rather than on-road antics that do it for you, the Bentley is almost certainly the SUV to choose.  

Is the driving position comfortable and is it easy to see out?

The driver’s seat in the Urus isn’t as lofty as a Range Rover Sport’s, but the basic driving position – the relationship between seat, steering wheel and pedals – is fine and you can settle behind the wheel with ease. The steering column is – oddly for a car at this price point – manually rather than electrically operated, but the range of movement it offers is good. 

The sports front seats look the part and do have electric adjustment and heating as standard, but you have to pay extra for cooling and massaging features. The driver’s seat holds you in place pretty well through bends – a little more shoulder support would be a plus rather than a necessity – and they’re comfortable to sit on for hours at a time.  

The view out the front of the Urus is good: your vision is less constricted by the windscreen pillars than it is in an Aston Martin DBX. You can see out the side windows easily, too, and the big door mirrors – with blind spot monitoring – leave little to chance when you’re switching lanes on motorways. 

However, this is a Lamborghini, and they’re traditionally bad when it comes to seeing out the back. Now, everything is comparative: it’s not as bad as an ‘80s Countach (you have to open the door and sit on the sill to reverse those because the rear visibility is so awful). But seeing out the rear is still worse than it is in a Bentayga because the Urus’s steeply tapering roof line leads to a fairly shallow rear window. 

You do get front and rear parking sensors as standard, but you’ll have to pay extra for a 360-degree parking camera. 

Are the dashboard and infotainment system easy to use?

Being a Lamborghini, the Urus has its idiosyncrasies here, too – some might call it character. For example, the drive modes. They’re controlled by two fighter jet-style levers on the centre console, which flank the large reverse-gear selector and the engine stop-start button, which is hidden under a red ‘missile switch’ cover. Why? Well, because why wouldn’t it be? 

The righthand lever switches the Urus to electric mode, and there are three buttons underneath it to swap the powertrain between hybrid, performance, and recharge mode, which recharges the hybrid battery using the petrol engine.

The lefthand lever does the main drive modes, which, as we’ve said, include three on-road settings and three off-road settings. There’s nothing wrong with that per se, but you can only toggle through the modes sequentially downwards. If you happen to want a mode that’s above the one you’re in, you have to cycle down through all the other ones to get back to it, which is a bit of a palaver. 

Now let’s talk you through the gear selection. In most cars, if you’re flitting between drive and reverse to get into a tight parking space, for instance, you’re often nudging a simple selector lever forward and back, which is easy peasy. This is a Lamborghini, though, so it’s not that simple. To get reverse, your left hand has to pull the big reverse-gear lever on the centre console, but to get drive, you have to pull one of the steering wheel paddles with your right hand. But the paddles move around because, well, they’re attached to a steering wheel, which you’re twirling constantly. So they’re rarely in the place you left them and you struggle trying to find them again during a rushed manoeuvre.

But, these quirks aside, there’s lots that works well. The physical toggle switches underneath the infotainment screen help with usability, and the switches on the steering wheel and column stalk, which operate the cruise control, work just as well as they do in the Audi RS Q8. And while we’d prefer physical buttons, the separate 8.6in climate control touchscreen means the temperature settings are always on show with the icons are big enough to hit easily. The only problem is the shallow angle of the screen: when sunlight hits it, it's tricky to see.

The digital driver’s display is easy to view, though, and offers loads of information, including a G-meter, and you can add a head-up display to supplement it. 

The central 12.3in infotainment system has bespoke graphics and additional racy menus, showing telemetry data and lap times etc. But underneath it's running familiar Audi software that’s generally responsive, and once you know your way around the menus they make sense. 

As you’d expect, it’s got all the typical kit, including in-built Google Maps, wireless phone charging, natural speech voice control, wi-fi hotspot, and Apple CarPlay/Android Auto phone mirroring. 

"Although the underlying elements are based on the Audi RS Q8, Lamborghini’s stamped its own unique style, which is certainly flamboyant. And you can’t help but smile at the fighter jet-style controls, although I did find the usability isn’t as good as something more conventional." – John Howell, Deputy Reviews Editor

How much space does it have for people?

Even tall adults won’t feel hemmed in sitting in the front of the Lamborghini Urus – this is a big sports SUV after all. Head room is good, there’s plenty of elbow room, and the front seats slide back far enough to fit six-foot-plus adults – although there’s even more leg room in a Bentley Bentayga, should you need it. And there’s enough storage space dotted around for all your bits and bobs, too. 

The rear seats recline for added comfort, and leg room is good enough that taller folks will fit even when the front seats are fully back on their runners. Some rear head room has been sacrificed in the name of style – the sloping roof lowers it significantly compared with its key rivals – but you’ll only find your head brushing the roofline if you’re exceptionally tall.

How much room does it have for luggage?

The Lamborghini Urus only comes as a PHEV, and the high-voltage battery lives under the boot floor. That means the boot is only 454 litres, which is a lot smaller than the previous non-hybrid versions. It’s slightly down on the luggage capacity of the Aston Martin DBX, too. 

It’ll still fit a decent amount (to give you some context, a VW Golf’s boot is 381 litres) but an Audi RS Q8’s boot is a whopping 605 litres and will fit a lot more. 

If you do need extra luggage room you can always fold down the 40/20/40 rear seats, which gives you a long, flat, extended load bay. 

“I’m 6' 3” tall and had no issue fitting in the front or the rear of the Lamborghini Urus, which makes it the least Lamborghini-ish Lamborghini I’ve ever sat in. Mainly because they often don’t have any rear seats at all.” – John Howell, Deputy Reviews Editor

How much does it cost and what equipment do you get?

There’s no point in quoting old tropes like if you have to ask how much, you can’t afford it. It’s a Lamborghini; everyone knows they’re expensive. How expensive? Well, a lot more than Audi RS Q8 and quite a bit more than the most expensive Porsche Cayenne. However, the Urus’s starting price is pretty much the same as the Aston Martin DBX 707 or DBX S, and it’s slightly cheaper than a Bentley Bentayga Speed. 

Of course, the chance of a Lamborghini Urus leaving the factory in Sant'Agata with no options is less than a long-lost auntie leaving you a £5M Miura in her will. You can select all sorts of options as well, from flashier paint finishes and bigger wheels, to accessorising it with carbon fibre accoutrements inside and out. And Lamborghini’s Ad Personam Custom Request (its bespoke tailoring department) will help you create something totally unique if you want. Do any of those things, though, and the budget will soar exponentially – the version we tested had black 23in wheels that, alone, added well over £10,000 to the price. 

There’s a pretty decent amount that is standard, though, including an Alcantara headlining, Matrix adaptive LED headlights, adaptive cruise control with steering assist, power-folding door mirrors, electrically adjustable and heated leather front sports seats, a head-up display, and the infotainment kit we’ve already covered. 

If you’re thinking that the Urus SE plug-in is a wicked-wheeze-tax dodge, you might be disappointed. Sure, the 140g/km of CO2 it officially emits is very low compared with its non-hybrid rivals, but to qualify for the really cheap BIK tax bands, those emissions would need to be under 50g/km with a much longer electric range. So while it isn’t in the top 37% BIK tax band, it’s still in the upper tier. 

However, use the plug-in element wisely (charging the battery regularly at home on a cheap tariff) and you will genuinely save yourself a bundle of cash by running on electric power. But is that really the reason you bought yourself an Urus – to potter around silently? No, we didn’t think so. Stick it in hybrid mode, though, where it mixes the V8 with the electric motor, and you could see it average over 40mpg. Run it in Sport or Corsa, where it’s all about the noise and power, and you’ll average closer to 20mpg at best.

Is it reliable, and how long is the warranty?

Funnily enough, the Lamborghini brand didn’t appear in our most recent What Car? Reliability Survey, and nor did the Urus. You’d have thought a few Urus owners might’ve shared their ownership experiences with us…tut tut. The point is, we have no idea how reliable the Urus will be. 

However, we can tell you that the Urus comes as standard with a three-year/unlimited-mileage warranty, which you can extend for up to five years for a fee. 

How safe is it, and is it easy to steal?

Euro NCAP hasn’t crash-tested a Urus, and we doubt it will do so anytime soon. Therefore we can’t give you a definite answer on how safe it is, but the Audi Q8 and Porsche Cayenne achieved five-stars overall when they were tested – and, as we’ve said many times, they’re mechanically very similar so it’s a helpful guide. However, they were tested several years ago, when the tests were a lot less stringent than they are now. 

The Urus is available with the usual level of safety aids, including automatic emergency braking (AEB), lane assist, blind spot monitoring, SOS emergency call, and Isofix mounts on the rear seats. It also comes with a standard alarm and immobiliser. 

"While I’d caution against adding loads of options because doing so is like pulling the plug on your finances, I do really love the feel and grip of the optional Corsa Tex (Alcantara) steering wheel." – John Howell, Deputy Reviews Editor

Buy it if...

–You prioritise huge performance and agile, playful handling
–You like the idea of a sports SUV with a bit of electric range
–You love the sound of a thunderous V8 

Don't buy it if...

–You think it’ll be cheap on BIK tax
–You want the best interior quality for the money 
–You want the most practical sports SUV 

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