Revelry and champagne were likely abounding at Lamborghini’s headquarters when the automaker announced on Monday that it set an all-time sales record in 2019. Lamborghini sold 8,205 cars last year, trouncing its previous record year from 2018 by 43 percent and averaging more than 22 sales per day worldwide. But this news comes with a somewhat dark caveat.
The majority of those 8,200-plus sales weren’t of the dated but still savage Aventador, nor were they of the more approachable but still astonishingly quick Huracán. Most of the cars Lamborghini sold in 2019 were its newest model, the Urus SUV, which accounted for over 60 percent of the company’s sales volume with 4,962 units sold.
Yes, the Urus is the wildest SUV on sale today with angular styling and a 641-horsepower twin-turbo V8, but being a beast of a truck doesn’t always translate into being wall poster-worthy. That raging bull badge can only do so much to redeem the Urus’ uncomfortably Pontiac Aztek-like styling, not-quite-there driver inputs, and a powertrain that is—relative to the rest of Lamborghini’s lineup—clinical, borrowing heavily from the parts bin.
Lamborghini’s decline into relative blandness compared to that of its former self should take no-one by surprise. Neither the flagship Aventador nor its supporting act the Huracan were groundbreaking when they first launched. When Lamborghini confirmed its intent to enter the crossover space, the writing was on the wall, whether or not we wanted to see it.
This doesn’t have to portend poorly for Lamborghini’s future, however. The Urus’ runaway success should give Lamborghini all the funding it needs to ensure that the Aventador’s hybridized, nearly 1,200-horsepower successor is as good as anyone could hope. And with how imaginative Aventador-based special models like the Centenario, SC18 Alston, or Sián FKP 37 have gotten, rehashing the styling of a special-edition model to use on the new V12 flagship (a la Reventón to Aventador) wouldn’t even be a mistake this time around.
If the price we have to pay for Lamborghini’s reconnection with its roots is a few SUVs, so be it. It’s a business model that hasn’t done Lamborghini’s Volkswagen-owned fratello Porsche any ill.
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