First Drive: 2025 Lamborghini Urus SE Plug-In Hybrid SUV

You might think that Toyota is the poster child for their fleet going hybrid. But check out Lamborghini. Gas-electric hybrids are flooding out of the automaker’s Sant’Agata factory. We spent a couple days in Italy checking out the latest entry, the 2025 Lamborghini Urus SE Plug-In Hybrid SUV.

Lamborghini’s commitment to electrifying its line-up has only accelerated over the last couple years. First came the Revuelto, the Aventador’s replacement. And while you may grimace at the thought of gas-electric hybrid replacing an internal combustion engine supercar, does 1,001 horsepower flowing from a 6.5-liter V12 and three electric motors tempt you? Then there’s the Temerario hybrid, which takes the Huracán’s spot in the lineup with a new twin-turbo 4.0-liter V-8 and three electric motors delivering 907 horsepower to all four wheels.

OK, maybe you’re still pissed. Enough so that you’re debating about using an environmentalist as a speed bump. What better way than to use a Lamborghini Urus SE SUV? But we undoubtedly advise against it. Legalities aside, the SE model is a – you guessed it — hybrid, sharing the Temerario’s 611-horsepower twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V-8, 189-horsepower electric motor and 8-speed transmission, with Porsche and Bentley models. In the Urus SE, the driveline generates 789 horsepower and 701 pound-feet of torque to all four wheels. That’s enough to yank 7,000 pounds of your favorite plaything behind it.

Given that reality, what’s an ICE-loving driver supposed to do? I’d say, swallow your pride, get behind the wheel and pound some asphalt.

FUN DESPITE ITS FUNCTIONALITY

That’s when you’ll discover that running an errand – like picking up the kids from school or grabbing some groceries – won’t use a lick of fuel. Instead, it will use watts drawn from the Urus SE’s 25.9-kWh lithium-ion battery that resides underneath the rear cargo floor for 37 miles up to 81 mph. Refilling it takes 4 hours and 20 minutes to completely recharge from 20%.

Next, you’ll discover that despite being a practical Lamborghini, a phrase that seems to be an oxymoron, you can easily accommodate four fun-loving folks and their lifestyle debris, all 22 cubic feet of it. Yet that doesn’t mean the fun ends once a rear seat is added. There’s a whole range of settings that help put a grin on your face. They include six driving modes. Strada, Sport, and Corsa are tuned for blacktop, Neva, Sabbia, and Terra are perfect once the sidewalk ends. Then, choose how you want your electrons to behave, as there are with four hybrid settings: Hybrid, Recharge, Performance, and EV Drive.

To prove its mettle, Lamborghini brought us to Volkswagen Group’s Nardò Technical Center in southern Italy, a testing facility owned and operated by Porsche, but used by the world’s automakers, including Lamborghini’s fiercest rival.

TACKLING TWISTIES

You probably wouldn’t think of taking a 5,500-pound SUV to a skid pad. But you’re not Lamborghini. That’s where you’ll find it handling a motocross course with deftness of a Lamborghini. Not bad given the corporate genetics.

Nonetheless, despite its agility, its curb weight of 5,523 pounds is unmistakable. Despite being somewhat light feel, the steering is accurate, and the carbon-ceramic brakes provide exceptional braking.

It’s all but an hors d’oeuvre for the main course: the Strada Bianca, an off-road course designed to evaluate a vehicle’s performance and dynamics.

With a full-bodied 789 ponies distributed to all four wheels, it’s ridiculously fun and easy to hang this hippo’s tail out while carving corners, throwing heaps of topsoil before cranking the wheel and powering into the straightaway before hitting the next turn. Credit its combination of active anti-roll bars, rear-wheel steering, and adaptive dampers. Yee-haw! For passengers, it turns this ride into a vomit comet. For the driver, it’s a true thrill ride, one accompanied by an unmistakable road of a might V-8. No amusement park necessary.

More Lamborghini News

• Lamborghini Urus SE PHEV Previews Brand’s New Direction
• Lamborghini Huracan STJ Gives a Thrilling Send-Off to the V-10
• Lamborghini Rolls Out New Brand Logo

A Layer of Civility

Hitting public roads found the Urus SE possessing a train common to its Lambo hybrid siblings: hybridization brings a layer of civility to its personality. So as rambunctious as it can be, the Urus SE can play the part of the perfect gentleman or lady. It’s surprisingly it a bit more urbane when piloting pokey parkways, or ancient Italian roads that boast two-way traffic, even if only wide enough for one modern vehicle.

Such fun and thrills — intentional or not — come wrapped in a vehicle that’s been shipped to the spa for a facial and general primping. Outside, new grilles enhance cooling, and they’re bracketed by reworked lighting. Inside, there’s the expected thrones covered in quilted leather and a cabin accented in aluminum trim. The trio of 12.3-inch digital displays contain an instrument cluster, an infotainment system and climate control systems. The graphic interface is a bit busy, but it perfectly captures Lamborghini’s reason for being.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Few vehicles provide the combination of fun and function that the 2025 Lamborghini Urus SE does. It does so at speeds that will terrify unwitting passengers. Then again, when you’re dealing with a raging bull, you need to know what you’re in for. There’s little doubt that those buying a Lamborghini Urus SE are unaware of what they’re buying.

And yet they might be, as using it for short trips will provide the expected performance without the expected fuel bill. It can run solely on electric just like a Toyota Prius. But it can run fender-to-fender with Ferrari.

For any car, but especially for SUVs, that is a unique set of capabilities. And it can be had starting at  $262,631.