Lamborghini Urus Performante 2022 Review

The 2022 Lamborghini Urus Performante will be priced from $465,876 plus on-road costs when it goes on sale locally in the second half of next year.

That puts it upstream of rivals such as the Aston Martin DBX707 (from $428,000 plus ORCs) and Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT (from $351,900 plus ORCs), although it’s likely to be a bargain next to the still-to-be-priced Ferrari Purosangue.

It will also carry a premium over the incoming Lamborghini Urus S, which will feature the same uprated engine as the Performante but not the same engineering overhaul that gives the model you see here the performance edge.

The 2022 Lamborghini Urus Performante is equipped with a bespoke aero package that comprises a carbon-fibre front spoiler and splitter assembly, as well as a unique front fascia panel.

There’s also a lightweight carbon-fibre bonnet with air vents, along with a carbon-fibre rear spoiler and diffuser, with Akrapovic tailpipes visible underneath the latter.

Further differentiation from the standard Urus is provided by a bi-colour livery scheme that contrasts the body colour with black-painted door handles, as well as blacked-out aero addenda, as well as the vents in the bonnet and on the flanks.

The Performante is available with a choice of unique-design 22-inch or 23-inch wheels, with semi-slick Pirelli Trofeo R tyres offered as an option with the smaller rims.

The bonnet can be offered with optional partially exposed carbon-fibre, and also optional is a carbon-fibre roof.

Inside, the cockpit features Nero Cosmus black Alcantara as standard with a new hexagonal seat stitching design, the ‘Performante trim’ (leather is optional).

Dedicated colour and trim options include extension of the Performante trim on doors, roof lining, seat backrest and rear wall, with further Ad Personam customisation including interior matt carbon-fibre details, red door handles and a customised kickplate with Ad Personam logo.

The black Alcantara/leather steering wheel is trimmed in matt black while the aluminium interior trim is black anodised. With the optional Dark Package, the matt black treatment can be extended to other interior details including the lever of the Urus’ central ‘Tamburo’ drive mode selector.

A new HMI graphic, with a dedicated design for the Urus Performante, features on both the centre console screen and in a large arc across the main display.

No crash test data is available for the 2022 Lamborghini Urus Performante, but it comes armed with front, side and curtain airbags, plus the usual seat belt pretensioners.

Active safety features include ABS, traction control, electronic stability control and roll stability control, forward collision mitigation, highway assistant lane keeping assist, highway assistant lane departure warning, low tyre pressure warning, emergency SOS, front and rear parking sensors and blind spot assist.

One of the most significant technical elements in the 2022 Lamborghini Urus Performante is its use of steel-spring suspension in lieu of the standard model’s air-sprung set-up.

This means it sacrifices some versatility as ride height is no longer adjustable, and ride quality also suffers marginally.

However, Lamborghini chief technical officer Rouven Mohr says the payoff comes through “greater linearity and more precise body control” across the range of suspension travel.

The new suspension set-up lowers ride height by 20mm, and the front and rear tracks have also been pushed out by 16mm, endowing the Performante with a beefier stance than its base-model sibling.

There’s also a bespoke Torsen centre differential with new hardware that makes it quicker to respond and shuffle a greater percentage of torque to the rear axle. This particularly pays dividends in Rally Mode, which loosens up the electronic safety net to enable the car to slide around on loose surfaces.

The standard four-wheel steer further boosts agility, while a recalibrated eight-speed auto makes for faster shift times.

Bespoke Pirelli Trofeo R semi-slick tyres are optionally available on the 22-inch rims. They reduce the lap time around the 6.22km Nardo Handling Track by 1.5sec and account for about 30-50 per cent of the Urus Performante’s performance gains versus the standard model.

Meanwhile, the Performante’s aero package features air curtains incorporated into the lower air intakes. These smooth airflow around the side of the car and also extract heat and air pressure from the front wheel wells.

Meanwhile, the vents in the bonnet reduce front-end drag while also extracting heat from the engine bay.

The roofline culminates in a carbon-fibre wing that contributes to 38 per cent more rear downforce, while the rear bumper and diffuser are also fabricated from carbon-fibre.

The 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 in the 2022 Lamborghini Urus Performante isn’t significantly changed, although power is bumped up marginally from the current standard model’s 478kW to 490kW at 6000rpm.

The peak torque figure of 850Nm is unchanged and is on tap from 2300 to 4500rpm.

Performance is borderline neck-snapping as the Urus Performante dispatches the 0-100km/h dash in just 3.3sec, while 0-200km/h is accomplished in 11.5sec. Top speed is a largely academic 306km/h.

The engine has a noticeably fruitier soundtrack, thanks to the lightweight titanium Akrapovic sports exhaust, which develops its characteristic Lamborghini resonance depending on the drive mode selected.

It also reduces weight by a substantial 10.5kg.

How fuel efficient is the Lamborghini Urus Performante?

Official consumption figures for the 2022 Lamborghini Urus Performante are not yet available.

However, given that the standard Urus – which uses largely the same powertrain – has a WLTP figure of 12.7L/100km, it’s safe to expect the Performante will be in a similar ballpark.

The standard Urus is already exceptionally sharp dynamically for a full-size SUV, but the 2022 Lamborghini Urus Performante ups the ante to an altogether loftier plane.

A key component of our drive experience was a series of hard laps at the tight and technical Autodromo Vallelunga, which calls for quick direction changes and strong drive out of corners.

It almost defies belief that a 2150kg SUV that stands over 1.6m tall could scoot around this circuit with such deftness and vigour.

Lamborghini’s chief test and development driver Mario Fasanetto revealed to carsales that the Performante is virtually as quick as the original 2014 Lamborghini Huracan around the 6.22km Nardo Handling Track, which is in itself a mind-boggling stat.

Powering out of pit lane, the straight-line punch and appealing soundtrack of the Performante is immediately evident, but what’s more eye-opening is how vigorously the carbon-ceramic stoppers – 440mm at the front and 370mm at the rear – wipe off speed. There’s no fade, even after a series of hard laps.

More surprising still is how the Performante is able to hook up and launch out of slow corners, of which there are many at Vallelunga. That’s the upgraded Torsen centre differential and torque-vectoring rear diff at work.

The big Lambo is also terrifically adjustable, so you can easily tweak your trajectory if you’ve misjudged your line on corner entry. Of course, much of credit here goes to the super-sticky Trofeo R tyres.

Apart from losing height-adjustable air suspension, the 2022 Lamborghini Urus Performante also dispenses with the Sabbia (Sand), Terra (Mud/Rocks) and Neve (Snow) drive modes that the standard Urus offers.

So, the Performante is not the right tool if scaling sand dunes or ploughing through muddy swamps is on the agenda.

What you can do instead is select the new Rally Mode via the Tamburo selector on the centre console and carve up gravel roads. This drive mode loosens up the electronic safety net, allowing plenty of scope for sideways action.

Even so, the Performante remains easy to manage, with little flicks of steering correction bringing the car back into line without any drama or white-knuckle syndrome.

The cabin of the 2022 Lamborghini Urus Performante strikes a nice balance between being sporting and cossetting.

The front seats are comfortable and offer plenty of adjustability, so it’s not hard to conjure up an ideal position behind the wheel.

Rear-seat dwellers (you can opt for a four- or five-seat format) have adequate headroom and shoulder-room, although the small side glasshouse limits visibility somewhat.

Luggage capacity is a respectable 616 litres with all the seats in place.

There’s ample scope for individualisation via the Ad Personam program, with a dizzying array of trim materials and colours on offer.

It’s fair to say the current 2022 Lamborghini Urus – soon to be replaced by the updated Urus S – already offers enough punch and pizzazz to satisfy even hardened performance enthusiasts.

Even so, upgrades the Urus Performante brings to the table make it an extremely enticing package, if your budget can stretch to half-a-million bucks (by the time you get it on the road).

The Urus Performante doesn’t have things all its own way, as the Aston Martin DBX707 and Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT are both rapid and capable, too. And there’s a Ferrari Purosangue on its way…

But the sheer dynamism and Latin flair of the Urus Performante will doubtless earn it the nod from many buyers, and they won’t be disappointed.

It’s genuinely hard to fathom that a full-size SUV could be so fast, agile and plain laugh-out-loud fun.

2022 Lamborghini Urus Performante at a glance:
Price: $465,876 (plus on-road costs)
Available: Second half of 2023
Engine: 4.0-litre V8 twin-turbo petrol
Output: 490kW/850Nm
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Fuel: To be confirmed
CO2: To be confirmed
Safety rating: Not tested