Lamborghini Urus SE Review: Audacious, Hilarious, But Not The Car It Truly Wants To Be

Has enough time passed yet for us to get over the concept of the Lamborghini Urus? Even if it hasn’t for us purists who detest the idea of the bull badge on any SUV beyond the LM002, the accountants in Sant'Agata Bolognese are long beyond caring.

Since the Urus arrived, Lamborghini’s annual sales have effectively tripled, last year surpassing 10,000 cars for the first time in the manufacturer’s history. It’s inevitable then that an SUV will now forever be a staple of the Lambo line-up and well, if we’ve gotten used to it with the Porsche Cayenne, why not the Urus?

Well, now we’re over that, we’ve got another bit of sacrilegious ground to cover – the Urus has gone hybrid. Such is the way that both customer demands and emissions regulations have directed things, the year is 2024 and there’s a Lamborghini badge on a hybrid SUV.

Just to add an extra bit of a kick to that thought, you can now only have the Urus as a hybrid. The ‘base’ S and the Performante, both of which used a standalone 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8, have been culled to make way for this – the Urus SE.

Despite using a name that in the wider VW Group nomenclature indicates the most pared back of trim levels, this is the most complex Urus yet.

It utilises the same V8, itself producing 612bhp and 590lb ft of torque (down from 657bhp in the S), albeit now paired up with a single electric motor integrated with the 8-speed torque converter gearbox. With that, power peaks at 789bhp and 701lb ft of torque.

Presumably, that’s also going to make it comfortably the quickest Urus to date, right? Well… not really. The 3.4-second sprint to 62mph is a tenth quicker than the S and a tenth slower than a Performante. It also matches the S’ 190mph top speed.

Not that a tenth really matters in the scope of an SUV, but that lack of dramatic improvement despite the extra power is easily explained by extra weight. A chunky 25.9kWh battery pack sits under the boot floor which, with exacts kept under wraps by Lambo, adds around 300kg to the scales.

The trade-off of that is, of course, lower emissions which allows Lamborghini to keep building the Urus and sillier stuff like the Revuelto and Temerario. It also makes it the first Lamborghini with a genuinely usable electric range.

It’s quoted as offering up to 37 miles of range on a charge and, from our testing, north of 30 seems achievable in real-world usage. More than handy for flexing through Monaco, Mayfair or, in three owners’ time, Middlesbrough without stirring up too much noise or harmful emissions.

That brings a new dimension to the SUV, yet doesn’t really dramatically change the formula elsewhere.

Sure, it’s still basically quick when you’re driving it in a straight line but it truthfully feels no faster than before. If anything, it just adds more complexity to the experience, with three battery settings now to consider alongside an already excessive six driving modes to pick from.

Handling feels a touch compromised with that extra weight as well. Granted, the original Urus was never a featherweight and as far as SUVs go, the SE still remains one of the most engaging but it loses a bit of sharpness. Like there’s a real bull sitting on the inside of a corner waiting to nudge you wide as you tip the car in.

Yet, get it on the right bit of road (or loose gravel), and it’s probably more fun thanks to some clever new diff tech. Gone is the Torsen centre differential and in its place a new electronic LSD and central Haldex clutch. The result of that is a 2.5-tonne SUV with a lively rear end, and it’s hilarious as a result.

In between bimbling around town and driving like an absolute tit on a country road though, the Urus SE doesn’t alter anything really from the base car. You’ll get a slightly better real-world efficiency figure close to 20mpg, it probably rides a touch harsher than the S with the extra weight but you wouldn’t notice unless you drove it back-to-back, and it still has the audacious presence of any Lamborghini.

Granted, if we’re having to find something to be picky about, a tweaked look does rein in some of the brashness. The front end is a little less busy and tamer as a result, while a rear end inspired by the facelifted Gallardo softens it. It’s a bit less offensive than before, which may suit but feels completely at odds with the concept of a Lamborghini SUV.

It’s something that could also be said for the SE as a whole. It’s pretty clear that a hybrid Lamborghini Urus has to exist to keep the car in production, and ultimately, keep the cash flowing into Sant'Agata Bolognese so it produces the truly special stuff.

Because of that though, it doesn’t feel like the car Lamborghini truly wants it to be. It’s an impressive thing in its own right, but the Urus was already that without the battery tech.

Plus, it's hard not to imagine an Urus Performante doing without the batteries and taking on the fresh diff. What a mad, mad prospect that would be – and it’s a shame that’ll likely never exist.