Lamborghini’s controversial and desirable Urus super SUV is already at the centre of a squabble before it’s even been made. At the heart of the debate is the location of where Lambo’s future cashcow will be made.
Audi and Volkswagen’s engineers would have preferred it be made outside Italy. Rumours suggest plans for the Urus to be made in a factory in Slovakia where the frame of the Porsche Cayenne is also manufactured. However, the Italian government has stepped in and are essentially giving Lamborghini €100 million (approx. $150,700,000) in the form of tax breaks and incentives if they’ll keep production in Italy.
First seen at the 2012 Beijing Motor show, Lamborghini expects the road-going Urus to bring in an extra 3,000 sales per annum, which would mean an increase jobs at the Sant A’gata plant. Lamborghini is expected to hire around 300 new workers for the Urus production. The people of Italy need as much employment as they can get. Italy is still feeling the effects of the Euro crisis.
Should the Urus be as successful as Lambo predicts, and with the trend for SUVs and crossovers the way it is at the moment plus China’s taste for luxury cars, then an extra 3,000 sales from one model alone would be a massive plus for Lambo’s business. To put that into perspective, In 2014 Lamborghini sold a total of 2,530 cars worldwide.
The Urus is expected to be launched by the end of the decade but as Audi execs have yet to make a final decision on the production location, it could be longer still. This will be Lambo’s second attempt at the SUV segment after the cult LM002 ceased production in 1993. By the time the Urus hits the market it’ll be joined by other high performance crossovers from Maserati, Aston Martin, and Jaguar.
As far as I’m aware it seems that manufacturing the Urus in Italy has more positives than negatives. I know some people don’t care where their car is made but who wants a Lammborghini made in Slovakia? I mean when Aston Martin decided to produce the Rapide in Austria they quickly learned from their mistake and shifted production to Gaydon. Also, I hope they change the name, ‘Urus’ still sounds like an medical condition to me.