The Lamborghini Conquisto SUV Concept (by Belgian designer David Cardoso)
Rumours are doing the rounds again that Lamborghini are to produce a new SUV with the platform of the Porsche Cajun and the new Bentley V8. Right engine, wrong platform.
This is an old chestnut that crops up every month or four – Lamborghini to make new SUV – probably because Lamborghini already has an SUV in its history with the frankly other-world LMoo2. Still, with Lamborghini now very much a part of the VW Group (what happened to the revival of Auto Union as a group name?) there’s starting to be more credence to the guesswork.
This time it’s Auto Express doing some guesswork (industry insider said…) and they reckon that Lamborghini are going to take the underpinnings of the Porsche Cajun (which is basically the same as the Q5), shove in the new 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 currently being developed jointly by Audi and Bentley and call it the Lamborghini LM00X (or LM003 or LM004 or LM005…).
Which sort of makes sense. The engine will certainly be up to the job – after all, it’s scheduled to drop in to the new V8 Bentley Continental GT – but we’d question the logic of the Porsche Cajun for the underpinnings. Yes, the Q5/Cajun-based Lamborghini SUV would be smaller, but would that work for Lamborghini?
Already probably the most important market for Lamborghini is China, and China doesn’t really do compact anything. Certainly not when it comes to ostentatious displays of new wealth. The new wealthy in China love expensive and exotic cars, and the bigger the better. So why use the Q5/Cajun underpinnings?
Surely it would make more sense to use the platform the new Cayenne and Touareg use? Then you could make a really imposing Lamborghini SUV, something to take on the Lagonda SUV (back on again) and the BMW X7 (also back on again). We can’t see a compact Lamborghini working in China, but a huge SUV with the Lamborghini badge would probably double Lamborghini sales overnight.
Guess we’ll have to wait and see who’s right. Our ‘Industry Insider’ (us) or the Auto Express ‘Industry Insiders’ (them). Or neither of us.
Have your say - leave a comment