With the preponderance of super-expensive automobiles populating the automotive landscape, you’d think it’d be a no-brainer to shuffle a hot-looking, $300K-plus Italian super-SUV from oddly named concept car to production reality. Apparently not, however, with Lamborghini’s proposed SUV only now being officially confirmed for production after soon after the debuted in 2012 turned out to be premature. Lamborghini has also stated that the new moneymaker will join the Huracán and Aventador in the lineup by 2018, and that it will be built in Italy.
The path to production for Lamborghini’s proposed SUV has been littered with hurdles, all of them, bizarrely, seemingly outside of the Italian supercar maker’s complete control. After first green-lighting the crossover for production soon after showing it in concept form as the Urus, Lamborghini reneged—but only because it said fellow VW Group member and Lamborghini parent Audi had yet to sign off on the project. Then the SUV was seemingly back on track recently when Lamborghini again pulled out the wet blanket, this time blaming the Urus’s holdup on the Italian government.
Lamborghini’s latest announcement is legit, however, given that it includes discussion of specific timing, investment pledges, and even a square-footage increase of its Bolognese factory from 80,000 to 150,000. There’s little question that an SUV would significantly boost Lamborghini’s production numbers and operating profit, and an SUV isn’t incongruent with the brand’s image: Lambo already did the SUV thing when it sold the absurdly macho LM002 in the ’80s and ’90s. Now, about the “Urus” name . . .
