Amid slowdown Lamborghini India delivers 50 SUVs in 1 year

Mumbai (IANS) Even as a slowdown continues to dent India's car market, luxury automobile manufacturer Lamborghini India has created a record for the fastest 50 deliveries of SUV 'Urus' within the first 12 months of its launch.

The robust sales of the ultra-luxury car gives an inkling that the creamy layer of the Indian masses has remained unaffected by the much-talked about economic slowdown and lack of liquidity among the public.

According to the company, India was amongst the first few markets to launch the Urus which comes with a price tag of Rs 3.1 crore (ex-showroom).

"We anticipated that URUS is going to drive our future growth in volumes. The Lamborghini Super SUV Urus offers the driving dynamics and emotions true to Lamborghini DNA and has versatility of an SUV that addresses the challenge that we have in India, in terms of infrastructure," said Lamborghini India head Sharad Agarwal.

"Over 70 per cent of the Urus customers are first time buyers of the brand and with the Urus added to the Lamborghini model range, it continues to expand our reach to new geographies in India."

The new SUV sports a new front-mounted, 4.0 liter V8 twin-turbo engine delivering 650 hp (478 kW) at 6,000 rpm, maximum 6,800 rpm, and 850 Nm of maximum torque already at 2,250 rpm.

It can accelerate from 0-100 km per hour in 3.6 seconds or 0-200 km per hour in 12.8 seconds and with a top speed of 305 km per hour. Besides, the Urus can decelerate from 100 km per hour to 0 in 33.7 m.

The aberration comes as the automobile industry suffers from a slowdown, caused by several factors like high GST rates, farm distress, stagnant wages and liquidity constraints.

Consequently, the industry's sales and production levels have dramatically plunged, leading to job losses.

In August, all major Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) consisting of passenger, commercial, two- and three-wheeler manufacturers have reported a massive decline in domestic sales.

As per Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers' (SIAM) August sales figures, the overall sectoral offtake in the domestic market has plunged 23.55 per cent to 1,821,490 units, from 2,382,436 units sold during the corresponding month of the previous year.

Moreover, the industry has estimated that around 15,000 contractual manufacturing jobs have been lost and another million are at risk, if the slowdown is not reversed.