The Lamborghini Urus SE is terrible value for money. Good!

Hamilton Spectator

03-05-2025

The Lamborghini Urus SE I am testing comes with a sticker price just under $430,000. Wondering if Lamborghini can objectively justify that price tag? Of course it can't.
For that money, you could buy
two
fully loaded Porsche Cayenne Turbos — a vehicle with which the Urus shares both a platform and a number of fundamental components.
The Urus SE even uses the same twin-turbocharged, 4.0-litre V8 with hybrid boost, as the Porsche Cayenne Turbo — which is actually an Audi-derived unit — albeit with some special tuning from Lamborghini. The Urus SE Makes about 789 horsepower and will do 0 to 100 km/h in 3.4 seconds, where the Cayenne Turbo has to make do with only 729 horsepower and 3.7 seconds, respectively.
Grading the Urus SE on a $400,000-curve, you start to get unreasonably judgy, even paranoid. The paddle shifters feel kinda plastic-y. The Bang and Olufsen sound system lacks amplified fidelity. Hey, are those the same automatic window buttons they use on the Audi Q7? I don't actually know if any of those things are true. But I can tell you I wouldn't have had any of those thoughts in a $150,000 SUV.
When I asked non-enthusiast friends to sit in the driver seat and guess the price tag of the Urus SE, to a person they said, '$150,000.' And yeah, I'd say that's what it objectively feels like to drive and use as an everyday car.
As a plug-in hybrid, the Urus SE can be driven up to 60 km on battery power alone, and doing that makes the experience especially ubiquitous. It feels like driving an electric SUV. Any electric SUV. The end.
Lamborghini themselves aren't shy about this fact.
'We wanted to build a car with the possibility to be an everyday driver,' Lamborghini CEO of Americas Andrea Baldi told the Star during the launch of the new Temerario supercar.
Living with the Urus SE for a few days confirmed something I had long suspected about all cars — tangible value of any vehicle basically tops out around $150,000 to $175,000.
But you don't buy a Lamborghini because you're interested in great value. You buy a Lamborghini because you demand hot, sticky, dripping, pure, uncut dopamine.
Finishing his remark on the accessibility of the Urus, Baldi said, 'We wanted to offer our customers a driving experience that was the best part of their day, every day — not just on weekends.'
So, big question: Can an electrified SUV be the best part of your day? If it's a Lamborghini?
Definitely.
Dip out of the hybrid 'Stada' mode and select Sport or Corsa and you're met with pure violence. The exhaust note becomes a roaring cacophony of snap-crackle-bangs — causing nearby pedestrians to JUMP. Stand close enough to the exhaust, you can feel a deep thumping into your chest, as though your heart is trying to escape through your spine.
The throttle response becomes sharp and edgy, and the grip is so tremendous, you can rip the more-than-5,500-lbs. SUV around corners with such ferocity, it beggars belief. The steering may not offer sportscar-like feedback, but, goddamn, is it responsive. It translates your ham-fisted inputs into silk. The transmission shifts lightning quick. Literally.
Floor it from a dig and all hell breaks loose in the most hilarious way possible. Clocking a 0-100 km/h time becomes about as appealing as timing how long you're having sex.
And it even does off-road-y things. Select one of the off-road modes such as Neve, Sabia or Terra and the suspension will raise several inches, become more compliant and distribute traction accordingly for maximum fun … er … I mean, control.
Whipping through rain-soaked back roads, kicking up puddles to make massive rooster tails and soaring over rough terrain probably isn't something I would do with any other Lamborghini (well, OK, maybe the Sterrato).
And to the credit of Lamborghini, the reps, including Baldi, were delighted when I recounted my experience to them. 'Where did you take it? Which mode did you like best? Did you feel how much grip? Isn't that chassis incredible? Did you launch it?'
You rarely get that kind of engagement and thrill from a manufacturer after beating up on their tester. And it's perhaps why Lamborghini fans are so willing to pay for a badge. Because it's fun.
The most compelling evidence that a hybrid SUV is a real Lamborghini? It made people's day to see it. Driving it down the street, kids chased after it, adults stopped to take pictures. All begged for me to rev the engine. How could I not?
Baldi proudly proclaims that this was integral to the design brief, 'If you look at the Urus, you have no doubt that it's a Lamborghini,' he says. 'We can't hide who we are. We're not afraid to make a statement.'
That's why you pay $430,000 for one of these. Because you're not making anybody's day in a Kia Givenuponlife or Hyundai Sockswithsandals or whatever their latest soulsucking bucket of nothing is called. A bright orange Lamborghini — even if it's an SUV, makes the world a more interesting, vibrant and exciting place. That's Lamborghini's 'value proposition' and their line in the sand.
'It's not a choice between Lamborghini and competitors in the segment,' says Baldi 'For our customers, it's a natural choice to have a Lamborghini.'
The most memorable experiences in life are not 'great value.' They're the most unique and exciting. And by that metric, as hybrid SUVs go, nothing else even comes close to the Urus SE.
Type:
Front-engine, all-wheel drive SUV
Engine
: Twin turbo, 4.0-litre V8, combined with an electric powertrain, 789 horsepower, 701 pounds feet of torque
Transmission:
Eight-speed automatic
Fuel
(Premium 93): 12.5 litres/100 km in the city; 11.2l/100 km on the highway; 12.9l/100 km
combined
Cargo:
574 litres, or 20.3 cubic feet
Price:
$432,490, as tested