Thursday 10th January 2019

Urus boosts Lamborghini sales by 46 per cent

Demand for Lambo's 650hp SUV helped push volume up to 5,750 in 2018

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The world's hunger for high performance SUVs shows no signs of slowing, even at the very top of the segment, as is evident in Lamborghini's just-published 2018 sales figures. The Italian company sold 5,750 cars last year, which is a rather impressive jump of 51 per cent on the year before, but a staggering 46 per cent of that growth came thanks to the Urus.

In fact, 1,761 of the 1,935 extra Lamborghinis sold last year were the big tall ones, and that came despite the Urus not actually arriving until almost halfway through the year. What will it do in 2019 with a full 12 months at its disposal? There can't be many brave enough to bet against it becoming the brand's overall bestseller. See Porsche for reference.

Of course, we should note that sales of the refreshed Aventador, now eight years old, remained consistent, growing from 1,173 to 1,209. While the four-year-old Huracan, which has just been facelifted for 2019, went from 2,642 in 2017 to 2,780. So really it was good news all round in Sant'Agata Bolognese.

All of Lambo's key markets saw growth as well, with numbers up by 69 per cent in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, 46 per cent in America and 30 per cent in the Asia Pacific region. The US remained Lamborghini's top market, accounting for 1,596 of sales, and interestingly it was Britain that had the next biggest order book, with 636 sales here in 2018. Conversely, China demanded just 342 Lambos, illustrating just how much untapped potential remains there for the company.

Lambo boss Stefano Domenicali said that the "quantum leap [in sales] proves the sustainability of product and commercial strategy". But even he couldn't deny the Urus's leading role in ensuring the brand's 2018 success, saying that "right from its sales start" the Urus "created enthusiastic market acceptance and broadened [the] customer base".

This does raise the question of how much is too much, however, with too many Lamborghinis hitting the road inevitably damaging the value of exclusivity for each customer. Then again, even if Lamborghini were to double its current volume, its cars would still represent a minuscule portion of new car sales. Either way, more cars mean more profits, which means more money to make fantastic models like the Huracan Performante. And surely that's a good thing for all of us, isn't it?

[wab172uk]

If you build it, they will come.

Seems modern times are, the more expensive, the better it sells.

Still. If it keeps mad supercars coming, then all good. Don't like? Don't buy it.