Currently reading: 2023 Lamborghini Urus 'Evo' breaks cover in Germany

Lamborghini will boost the sporting credentials of its SUV before it goes all-EV for its second generation

A prototype of the upcoming 2023 Lamborghini Urus Evo has been spotted undergoing its latest phase of testing in Germany, but this time without its black and white camouflage livery. 

Pictured sporting a matte black exterior paint with black wheels and red brake callipers, Lamborghini’s updated SUV is also likely to gain a power hike and reduced kerb weight. 

Company CEO Stephan Winkelmann told Autocar earlier this year that there will be two important rounds of updates for the Urus before 2024.

"We have two steps," he said. "The first is the facelift, which adds more power and less weight – this is the idea – for the performance-oriented car. And then in 2024 we will have all our line-up hybridised, and the Urus is an important part of this."

91 Lamborgini urus front end

That means that, as well as the updated 2023 Urus weighing slightly less than 2200kg at the kerb, it will pack more than the current car's 641bhp courtesy of revisions to its twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre V8 – though likely only slightly more, given it is already the most powerful car from the Volkswagen Group to use this engine. It is likely the updated car will be named the Urus Evo, as was the case when the Huracán was similarly uprated in 2019. 

Following this round of updates, the Urus will receive a plug-in hybrid in 2024 before it is replaced in the second half of the decade by an all-electric successor.

Electrification will be key to maintaining the Urus's strong sales figures worldwide. It has been Lamborghini's best-selling model for the past three years (its first three on sale), outselling the Huracán by almost two-to-one in 2021. However, increasingly stringent emissions regulations risk the SUV falling out of favour, particularly with urban buyers, in various markets. 

The PHEV variant of the Urus is likely to feature a variation of the powertrain used by its Porsche Cayenne Turbo S E-Hybrid sibling. Mating the Volkswagen Group's twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre V8 to an electric motor, the system produces combined outputs of 671bhp and 664lb ft and offers an electric-only driving range of 19 miles while cutting CO2 emissions down to 90g/km. 

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As well as the electrified Cayenne, the Urus also shares its MLB Evo underpinnings with the Audi Q8Bentley Bentayga and Volkswagen Touareg, each of which now offers a PHEV option. 

"After the hybrid car, the Urus will be fully electrified," confirmed Winkelmann, adding that it will be a "completely new car". He did not confirm a timeframe, but given the firm's first EV is scheduled to launch in 2028 and the Urus successor will be the second, it is unlikely to arrive long before 2029. It is not clear if the Urus will be updated again in its current lifecycle. 

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Winkelmann's comments follow the beginning of winter testing for the updated Urus. A thick layer of snow and heavy camouflaging on the prototype caught by our photographers make substantial styling tweaks difficult to spot, but the front air intake area looks to have been reshaped around the lower half and, more prominently, the leading lip of the bonnet and bumper have been reshaped.

The prototype's side panels look to be less aggressively sculpted than those of the current car, although this could be an intended effect of the camouflage wrap, and while the rear-end design looks to have been left untouched, we can expect a reshaped lower diffuser and new brake-light designs to feature.

Expect additional changes for the updated Urus to bring subtle improvements to the cabin environment, infotainment system and chassis – and for them to be accompanied by a slight price increase over the current car's £160,000 starting price.

Felix Page

Felix Page
Title: Deputy editor

Felix is Autocar's deputy editor, responsible for leading the brand's agenda-shaping coverage across all facets of the global automotive industry - both in print and online.

He has interviewed the most powerful and widely respected people in motoring, covered the reveals and launches of today's most important cars, and broken some of the biggest automotive stories of the last few years. 

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BlahBlah43 25 May 2022
Its going to do whatever the Porsche Cayenne has already done with the GT and Hybrid. Rebadge and markup the price.
scrap 25 January 2022

Sociopaths, step this way.

Boris9119 25 May 2022

Haters will be haters?

Bob Cat Brian 25 January 2022

It seems the Aston Martin DBXS's reign as worlds most powerful luxury SUV lasted barely 12 hours. 

Symanski 25 January 2022
Bob Cat Brian wrote:

It seems the Aston Martin DBXS's reign as worlds most powerful luxury SUV lasted barely 12 hours. 

The Urus has always been the choice for sporty SUV, Bentayga for luxury.   DBX is trying to be a compromise between the two.   Engineering wise it meets its objectives of being useable and quick.   But where it falls down, as all Reichman designs do, it's just not attractive.   Not his worst attempt by far, but a once over by a competent designer might just be enough.

 

But what we have at Aston is a CEO who just thinks you put more Mercedes equipment in and add more power.   He's been at AMG when they did some ugly cars with too much power for themselves to handle, and that's his modus operandi at Aston too.

 

Bob Cat Brian 25 January 2022

I was being facetious, these super powerful SUVs are all so ridiculous, whether one has 640, 650 or 660 BHP and therefore most powerful is such irrelevant marketing machismo. 

Symanski 25 January 2022
Bob Cat Brian wrote:

I was being facetious, these super powerful SUVs are all so ridiculous, whether one has 640, 650 or 660 BHP and therefore most powerful is such irrelevant marketing machismo. 

Yes, there's that as well!

 

If they were ever driven the way that power would have you drive you'd be covered in puke from the kids in the back seats!   And the dog wouldn't be happy in the boot either...

 

Scribbler 25 January 2022

Who claimed that the DBX is the fastest or most powertful SUV? It's way off the pace.

At the moment, I think that the Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT is the fastest production ICE SUV - for a drag race, at least. On paper, it has the same engine as the Urus and and a similar weight, but it seems to put its power down better than the Lambo.

Boris9119 25 May 2022

Scribbler, yes it does, Its a Porsche, there is no substitute.