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The 2019 Lamborghini Urus, fastest SUV in the world, has landed

A Lamborghini has got to stand out from the crowd. In the supercar world, that means things like scissor-doors, massive wings, and almost impossibly wedge-shaped profiles. In the SUV world, standing out apparently means a dramatically descending roofline, a fascia with more cuts, contours, and creases than a bright yellow origami Pikachu. You certainly won't mistake the Lamborghini Urus for anything else on the road. That flavescent bodywork hides a 4.0-liter twin-turbocharged V8 sending a stout 641 horsepower and 627 pound-feet of torque through an 8-speed automatic transmission to all four wheels. It hits 62 mph in 3.6 seconds, and we anxiously await the first YouTube video showing an Urus lined up against a Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk for ultimate SUV-acceleration bragging rights. With a top speed of 189.5 mph, Rambo Lambo Part Deux seemingly makes good use of all those aero bits to outrun the Trackhawk by a solid 10 mph, and the Bentley Bentayga by a razor-slim troika. The hi-po engine is backed up with standard carbon ceramic brakes, active roll control, and a torque vectoring rear differential. With all of these performance goodies employed, Lamborghini expects it to have a Nurburgring lap time that will break the Alfa Stelvio Quadrifoglio's outstanding 7:15 time. 2019 Lamborghini Urus View 11 Photos We can't imagine many owners taking an Urus off road, but Lamborghini cites the low-down torque of the turbocharged V8 as an off-pavement benefit. And, in addition to the expected modes of Strada, Sport, Corsa and Neve (a typically Italian stand-in for Snow), there are Terra (off-road) and Sabbia (sand) modes. Each sportier road mode lowers the air suspension, and the off-road modes raise the suspension for ground clearance. Rear-wheel steering based on the system from the Aventador S can change steering angle between positive and negative 3 degrees, and it is likely to come in handy no matter what kind of terrain you're traveling. Lamborghini has expanded its factory in Sant'Agata in order to ramp up production on the Urus, which, when it goes on sale in 2018 as a 2019 model with a pricetag of about $200,000, is expected to be the marque's bestseller. In fact, the Group are hoping that it will eventually double annual global sales, from 3500 to 7000. The SUV market is currently booming, and Lambo plans other variants of this model, including its first plug-in hybrid, so this seems within the realm of possible.

Lambo Urus to stay true to concept, but almost didn't happen

Lamborghini has been making noise about adding a third model line for years, and it's finally going to happen now that the Urus concept has been approved for production. It'll likely be a while yet before all the details are sorted out and revealed to the public, but while visiting the factory in Sant'Agata Bolognese, Autoblog was able to glean some intriguing details about the Italian automaker's forthcoming crossover and its path it is taking from concept to production. "It's good to have heritage, but the LM002 is not the reference or the blueprint." - Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann We first saw the Urus concept back in 2012, and Lamborghini has been lobbying its parent company Volkswagen ever since for the go-ahead to put it into production. Now three years later, it finally has the green light. A company representative told Autoblog the production version looks "very" close to the concept. (No ground-up redesign here, then, like sister-brand Bentley did with its inaugural crossover project.) Speaking with a small group of journalists in Sant'Agata, the company's chief executive Stephan Winkelmann confirmed that "the SUV could be the [company's] first car with a turbo, and it could be the first car with a plug-in, if we have the opportunity to have more than one engine." The Urus (or however it's ultimately labeled for production) will also be decidedly geared towards on-road performance – unlike the Rambo Lambo on display in the museum next door. "It's good to have heritage," said Winkelmann, "but the LM002 is not the reference or the blueprint" for the new model. As to the question of why it has taken three years to get approval, and why it will take another three to put it into production, Winkelmann was frank: "Basically if you look at our numbers, we are a company which is growing at a fast pace, but we are very small," said the affable executive. "We had to find a way to almost double our efforts, because it's not the exchange of a model line, with the Gallardo and Huracan, it's adding a model line. And not out of 20 to come to 21 models, but from two to three is a major effort, and you have to have a rock-solid business case." "Putting 500 more people inside a company which is now at 1,200, you can imagine what it means. Doubling almost the size of the area here where we are sitting today. Investing hundreds and hundreds of millions.

Lamborghini chief stands by V12s

Despite the push for fuel efficiency and low carbon emissions, the V12 is still a staple of high performance. Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz, Aston Martin, and yes, Lamborghini maintain fleets of these monstrous dinosaur engines. And for the final entry on that list, that's not going to change. Lamborghini CEO Stefano Domenicali sat down with Autocar and explained in no uncertain terms that his company will continue to offer V12s for the time being. "Our major customers and dealers around the world say: 'Please do not touch the V12'," Domenicali told Autocar. "So we will continue to work in that direction." But there's more than just customer demand driving Lambo's V12 loyalty. According to Domenicali, the company's niche is small enough to weather V12-ruining storms. "In the short term, there is still a lot of development potential in the V12," Domenicali told Autocar. "Of course, we need to understand what the market is doing in terms of emissions and legislation, but I don't see that will be a problem. We are always very open to how the market might evolve." That evolution, lately, has tended toward electrification. The flagship of Lambo's arch-nemesis Ferrari pairs a 12-cylinder engine with a hybrid system for blistering performance. Then there's the stuff happening with the V8-powered Porsche 918 Spyder and McLaren P1. These three hybrids are in an entirely different and more potent performance (and price) class than Lamborghini's hottest model, the Aventador LP750-4 SV. Hybrids are the future of performance, for Lamborghini included... Eventually. "We cannot be disconnected to the world of the future but we want to be balanced," Domenicali said. "We need to make sure that as soon as the technology of electrification is relevant to our car at a cost level, and will add value, we are flexible to shift in that direction." Finally, Domenicali addressed advanced connectivity systems while parrying Autocar's question about autonomous vehicles. "If you own a Lamborghini, you want to have the passion of driving it and we need to keep that. But new technology could have some relevance to the driver. For example, if you are on a race track, you could have a head-up display which shows you how to maximize your performance [around a corner], using the telemetry we have now," Domenicali told AC. "That's an approach where I see that technology could be very useful for our customer." Related Video: