Lamborghini says that it expects its freshly unveiled Urus to appeal to “a completely different type of buyer” than the rest of its line-up.
Speaking to Automotive News Europe at the so-called super-SUV’s official reveal in Italy, Lamborghini chief commercial officer Federico Foschini said that, unlike most other automakers, the Italian brand was not targeting “younger buyers” with its newest product.
“Sixty to 70 percent of our buyers of super sportcars are under 50. In markets such as the US and China, 40 percent of the buyers are under 40,” Foschini told the publication.
“But since the Urus will also appeal to a completely different type of buyer, we expect older customers as well as more women,” he revealed.
Foschini went on to say that despite expectations that the Urus would ultimately double Lamborghini’s sales volumes, there were no plans to dramatically increase the brand’s dealer footprint.
“We have 136 dealers now; we plan to grow to 150 by 2018 and reach 160 by 2019,” Foschini said, before adding that Lamborghini did have plans to increase the size of each dealership.
“The Urus will be an everyday vehicle for many buyers. Therefore, they will require more servicing than the super sportscars that are typically used just on the weekend,” he explained.
CARmag.co.za expects the new Urus to become available in South Africa in the third quarter of 2018.
Running on the Volkswagen Group’s MLB Evo platform (and therefore sharing its underpinnings with the Audi Q7, Bentley Bentayga and Porsche Cayenne, as well as with the upcoming VW Touareg), the Lamborghini Urus is powered by a suitably fettled version of the VW Group’s familiar twin-turbo 4,0-litre V8 petrol.
The eight-cylinder engine sends 478 kW and 850 N.m to all four corners via a ZF-sourced eight-speed automatic transmission, which the Sant’Agata Bolognese-based brand says is enough for the hefty SUV to accelerate from zero to 100 km/h in just 3,6 seconds (and complete the 0-200 km/h sprint in 12,8 seconds), before topping out at 305 km/h.
