btm
2nd February 2012, 08:37 AM
http://smh.drive.com.au/motor-news/exclusive-lamborghini-super-suv-confirmed-20120202-1qu1q.html
Reports that Lamborghini will build a 300km/h-plus off-roader are on the money, according to a Drive source.
A senior source at Lamborghini’s parent company Audi in Ingolstadt, Germany has confirmed Italian media reports and Drive’s report last year suggesting the company, renowned for its outlandishly styled supercars, is planning to reveal a new Lamborghini SUV concept previewing its long touted third model line.
“I can’t comment in detail, but the speculation in the press is largely correct,” revealed an Audi manager speaking under the condition of anonymity when questioned by Drive about a report in Italian motoring magazine Quattroroute outlining plans by Lamborghini to gauge public response to a successor to the famed LM002 with a performance orientated, four-wheel-drive SUV.
Set to get its first public airing at the Beijing motor show in late April, the new 300km/h plus off-roader is planned to extend the current Lamborghini line-up, joining the successor to today’s Gallardo and recently introduced Aventador in what will be at least a three-strong model line-up from Sant’Agata from 2016 onwards.
Advertisement: Story continues below An unprecedented fourth model, a low slung four-door sedan previewed by the well received Estoque concept first wheeled out at the 2008 Paris motor show, is also under consideration and, in the words of Drive’s Audi sources, “shouldn’t be ruled out as a further addition to the line-up should studies reveal there is a market for such a car”.
Conceived as an upmarket rival for the likes of the Maserati Kubang, BMW X6 and a similar four-door coupe like off-roader recently confirmed by Mercedes-Benz and likely to be called the MLC, the new Lamborghini SUV has been conceived to sell in numbers of less than 1500 annually, suggesting its price will be upwards of $350,000 in Australia – over $100,000 more than the Porsche Cayenne Turbo.
Key markets for the new performance orientated four-wheel drive are expected to be China, USA and Europe.
Nothing is official at this early stage, but suggestions are the 5000mm long and 2000mm wide four seat Lamborghini will go on sale with a reworked version of the Gallardo’s 5.2-litre V10 petrol engine developing in the region of 430kW, which would make it the most powerful SUV on the market.
Also envisaged is a hybrid version of the big four-wheel-drive. It is said to combine the standard V10 with an 80KW electric motor and lithium ion battery pack, providing a system output of around 490kW.
Rumours suggesting the successor to the Lamborghini LM002 could also be offered with a specially tuned version of Audi’s new twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre V8 and/or twin-turbocharged 6.0-litre V12 common rail diesel have been indirectly denied by Lamborghini chairman, Stefan Winkelmann, who says Lamborghini will not adopt turbocharged engines of any kind this decade.
Known under the internal codename LB736, the new Lamborghini is planned to share its underpinnings with the next-generation Audi Q7, which is also set to provide the basis for a new Bentley off-roader.
Both Lamborghini and Bentley form part of the Volkswagen Group’s stable of brands.
The so-called MLB architecture will, in short wheelbase form, also sits beneath successors to today’s Porsche Cayenne and Volkswagen Touareg.
Already undergoing intensive development at Audi, the future MLB structure is planned to undergo a dramatic weight reduction program with Ingolstadt officials suggesting savings of up to 400kg for the Q7 through the use of added aluminium and carbon fibre.
The hi-tech construction will be picked up by Lamborghini to ensure its new SUV/crossover comes in under two tonnes.
As with the current Audi Q7, Porsche Cayenne and Volkswagen Touareg, the Lamborghini SUV is expected to be partly produced at the Volkswagen Group’s factory in Bratislava, Slovakia with final assembly likely to take place at Lamborghini’s Sant’Agata plant near Modena, Italy.
Reports that Lamborghini will build a 300km/h-plus off-roader are on the money, according to a Drive source.
A senior source at Lamborghini’s parent company Audi in Ingolstadt, Germany has confirmed Italian media reports and Drive’s report last year suggesting the company, renowned for its outlandishly styled supercars, is planning to reveal a new Lamborghini SUV concept previewing its long touted third model line.
“I can’t comment in detail, but the speculation in the press is largely correct,” revealed an Audi manager speaking under the condition of anonymity when questioned by Drive about a report in Italian motoring magazine Quattroroute outlining plans by Lamborghini to gauge public response to a successor to the famed LM002 with a performance orientated, four-wheel-drive SUV.
Set to get its first public airing at the Beijing motor show in late April, the new 300km/h plus off-roader is planned to extend the current Lamborghini line-up, joining the successor to today’s Gallardo and recently introduced Aventador in what will be at least a three-strong model line-up from Sant’Agata from 2016 onwards.
Advertisement: Story continues below An unprecedented fourth model, a low slung four-door sedan previewed by the well received Estoque concept first wheeled out at the 2008 Paris motor show, is also under consideration and, in the words of Drive’s Audi sources, “shouldn’t be ruled out as a further addition to the line-up should studies reveal there is a market for such a car”.
Conceived as an upmarket rival for the likes of the Maserati Kubang, BMW X6 and a similar four-door coupe like off-roader recently confirmed by Mercedes-Benz and likely to be called the MLC, the new Lamborghini SUV has been conceived to sell in numbers of less than 1500 annually, suggesting its price will be upwards of $350,000 in Australia – over $100,000 more than the Porsche Cayenne Turbo.
Key markets for the new performance orientated four-wheel drive are expected to be China, USA and Europe.
Nothing is official at this early stage, but suggestions are the 5000mm long and 2000mm wide four seat Lamborghini will go on sale with a reworked version of the Gallardo’s 5.2-litre V10 petrol engine developing in the region of 430kW, which would make it the most powerful SUV on the market.
Also envisaged is a hybrid version of the big four-wheel-drive. It is said to combine the standard V10 with an 80KW electric motor and lithium ion battery pack, providing a system output of around 490kW.
Rumours suggesting the successor to the Lamborghini LM002 could also be offered with a specially tuned version of Audi’s new twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre V8 and/or twin-turbocharged 6.0-litre V12 common rail diesel have been indirectly denied by Lamborghini chairman, Stefan Winkelmann, who says Lamborghini will not adopt turbocharged engines of any kind this decade.
Known under the internal codename LB736, the new Lamborghini is planned to share its underpinnings with the next-generation Audi Q7, which is also set to provide the basis for a new Bentley off-roader.
Both Lamborghini and Bentley form part of the Volkswagen Group’s stable of brands.
The so-called MLB architecture will, in short wheelbase form, also sits beneath successors to today’s Porsche Cayenne and Volkswagen Touareg.
Already undergoing intensive development at Audi, the future MLB structure is planned to undergo a dramatic weight reduction program with Ingolstadt officials suggesting savings of up to 400kg for the Q7 through the use of added aluminium and carbon fibre.
The hi-tech construction will be picked up by Lamborghini to ensure its new SUV/crossover comes in under two tonnes.
As with the current Audi Q7, Porsche Cayenne and Volkswagen Touareg, the Lamborghini SUV is expected to be partly produced at the Volkswagen Group’s factory in Bratislava, Slovakia with final assembly likely to take place at Lamborghini’s Sant’Agata plant near Modena, Italy.