The Asterion concept might have introduced the tech, but it’s the Urus that will become the first production plug-in hybrid Lamborghini.

Initially, the final version of the SUV is expected to be offered with a 4.0-liter twin-turbo petrol V8 instead of the V10 and V12 naturally aspirated units from the Huracan and Aventador, which in itself is a break with tradition.

Further down the road, a a plug-in hybrid variant is a very likely candidate for expanding its line up, as Autocar reports.

“When you add a 200kg battery to a super-sports car, you immediately change the weight distribution of the car. You destroy the DNA of the car“, said the automaker’s research and development boss, Maurizio Reggiani, who continued to talk about the LM002‘s spiritual successor: “In the Urus there will be a bigger luggage compartment, so you have the space where you can install batteries in a position that is good in principal for an SUV, and you don’t need a complete redevelopment or repackaging of the car.”

Regiani pointed out that achieving less than 100g/km of CO2 is extremely challenging because 200kg (441lbs) of batteries have to be added to the vehicle due to the hybrid system, and then the engineers will try to cut down this weight again by using materials such as carbon fiber, titanium and magnesium.

Lambo’s president and CEO Stephan Winkelmann is not convinced yet that this is the right path: “If you really want to have a hybrid car with, for example, an electric range of 50km, but you want to also maintain a good power-to-weight, you are raising the bar to a million-pound car“, he said. “It is something that we cannot allow without then charging it back to the customers, and this is not a market that is so large it can last for seven or eight years. It will be dead after a couple of years.”

The Urus is believed to start from a hefty $220,000+ and will be performance-focused – so mush so, it won’t feature autonomous driving tech, as its people believe it detracts from the purity of the experience their customers expect.

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