Lamborghini is not a brand that has grown quietly. Since the beginning, it’s been one of the loud ones—literally. Big engines making lots of noise in cars painted in loud colors are a hallmark of the brand, driven by people who generally don’t shy away from the attention it attracts. It’s rolling performance art and isn’t for everybody, but it has earned a legion of rabid, global fans.
That said, I wasn’t expecting much from Lamborghini’s latest, a plug-in SUV. The Urus SE is a new take on the company’s biggest, tallest machine since the wild LM002. But where that so-called “Rambo Lambo” of the 1980s was dripping in aggression and attitude, about as sophisticated in styling and driving feel as a cinderblock, the initial release of the Urus was just a little too refined for my tastes. Practical, even.
A version with a plug, a big battery, and the ability to run silently must be a step in the wrong direction, right? Actually, no. An afternoon behind the wheel of a 2025 Lamborghini Urus SE, dashing through the fields and hills around Lamborghini’s historic headquarters in Sant’agata, Bolognese, left me utterly and unexpectedly smitten.
Electric Recipe
Let’s start with the basics. Yes, the Urus SE is a plug-in hybrid, and so it brings all the practicalities you’d expect from that style of propulsion to the table. It has a big battery—25.9 kWh worth, about one-quarter the size of a Tesla Model S—enough to cover up to 37 miles on a charge.
That powers a 189-horsepower electric motor that tucks nicely inside the transmission. That means the motor has access to each of the eight speeds in the automatic transmission so that it can power this big bull up to 81 mph all on its own. In other words, there’s a very good chance you could complete your entire commute without spinning up the 4.0-liter, twin-turbocharged V8.
But you’ll probably want to at some point because that’s the only way you’ll get the system power of 789 hp and 700 pound-feet of torque. That’s more even than the performance-minded Urus Performante that Lamborghini released a few years back.
That extra power comes with one significant compromise: about 500 pounds. But even the Performante weighs about 5,000 pounds, so you hardly notice the additional ballast here.
I liked the driving character of the Urus SE better than the Performante. Yes, the Urus Performante is fun and wild, and all those things a Lamborghini should be, but the SE was surprisingly playful. When I finally escaped the traffic crowding the streets around the little towns of rural Italy, I found a few open and twisty roads where I could dig deeper into the throttle. The Urus SE wagged its tail with delight. A quick shot of the accelerator results in an immediate exuberance that I was not expecting.
The electric side of the equation helps, with an instant kick of torque to augment the big power that comes from the V8. It’s the kick you want from a machine fronting a golden bull logo on the nose.
Adding Personality
Even without a logo on the nose, it’s easy to tell that this is a Lamborghini. The lurid Arancio Egon paint is enough, plus the ornate 22-inch wheels. The Urus SE has a few visual tweaks to help differentiate it, and on the inside, a few custom appointments came courtesy of Lamborghini’s burgeoning Ad Personam program.
Like Mercedes-Benz with its Manufaktur, Porsche with its Sonderwunsch and Exclusive Manufaktur, and plenty of other premium brands, Lamborghini is getting in on the in-house customization business. Before setting out in my orange Urus, I spent much of the day touring the company’s facilities.
Lamborghini’s Ad Personam program offers hundreds and hundreds of different colors, a dizzying spectrum of hues that can be had in traditional glossy or a more trendy matte finish. A range of interiors is also available, even custom embroidery if you’d rather have your logo on the headrest than another prancing bull. (Sacrilege, I say.)
But even if you stick to the standard options boxes in Lamborghini’s online configurator, you’ll still need to do a remarkable amount of literal handiwork to build the company’s cars.
Home Base
Lamborghini’s factory is historical to the extreme, with cars like the Urus and Revuelto rolling down assembly lines on the same property Ferruccio bought 60-odd years ago. The process, though, is radically different than before. Automated shuttles carry chassis from station to station, stopping to pick up parts installed mainly by hand.
Engines, motors, and batteries are likewise carried in, married together as the line continues, the resulting product looking less like a science experiment and more like a car with every step.
Yes, there is automation, but it’s always amazing to see how much is still done by hand. A growing team of talented engineers lay up many of the carbon fiber panels and components found inside and out of the company’s sports cars, like Revuelto. Woven carbon sheets are pressed, molded, and baked in a remarkably manual process.
Upholstery, too, is largely assembled by hand. Large sheets of custom-dyed hides are digitally cut with lasers to maximize their use, but after that, the pieces are sewn together by dozens of workers using an array of sewing machines. Surfaces are covered, and leather is applied using the same bone tools that have been stretching hides for centuries.
Silent Escape
As I returned to Lamborghini’s headquarters in the Urus SE, gripping one of those hand-stitched steering wheels, I found myself stuck again in an ever-growing traffic quagmire. Everyone was heading home, and I found myself not needing the power or wanting the noise of that V8.
So I toggled the Urus SE to full electric mode so that I could cruise through towns and traffic silently. It was an unusually serene experience for a Lamborghini, but after a long day, it was not unwelcome. Silent running is a lovely feature in a plug-in hybrid, even in a Lamborghini.
But I did fire up that V8 one more time. A father and son were walking home together, and the little boy gazed wide-eyed at my orange SUV as I cruised towards them. With a few pulls of the mode lever and a bit of a tap on the throttle, the V8 barked into life, leaving the two of us smiling.
