The boutique brand says an electric Pagani must be light, but current EV technology is making that difficult.
Pagani has looked into electric supercars in the past, but last year, founder Horacio Pagani said that it had ended its fact-finding mission on high-performance EVs, and his son has now reiterated that the tech is not yet good enough for the brand. Moreover, customers are not interested.
Christopher Pagani, head of marketing for the automaker, told Top Gear, “Our goal is to create something that has to be lightweight. Looking at Pagani, what you see that is common with all the vehicles that we produce, they have to be lightweight.”
While EVs offer stellar refinement and punchy acceleration, hefty batteries and electric motors contribute significantly to the portly vehicle mass. For example, an all-wheel-drive Volkswagen ID.4 weighs 1,000 pounds more than a Tiguan with AWD.
An electric Pagani will likely be a rapid way of getting around, but the increased weight would ruin the car's feel.
Pagani
“You have to have a special feeling driving it, which sometimes you can call 'fun.' You can call it [a] pleasure. But the weight is definitely our first question mark. So probably, nowadays, with the existing technology, we cannot create the Pagani the way that we would like to do [it],” added the young Pagani.
The marque's motorcars gain motivation from mighty Mercedes-AMG 12-cylinder engines. The new Utopia utilizes a 6.0-liter V12 from AMG, which produces a muscular 852 horsepower and 811 lb-ft of torque. Interestingly, Mercedes suggested a hybrid V8, but Pagani declined.
But could Pagani look to Mercedes for its sophisticated electric architecture? “We are having constant meetings with Mercedes-Benz and AMG, and we are evaluating it,” said Pagani. “They are our official partner at the moment, so when we need [to build] a fully electric car, we will take the final decision [then].”
Horacio had earlier said that the company would keep its ear to the ground and that Mercedes has committed to continuing its support of the boutique automaker, so there's no rush to make a decision.
Pagani
Pagani's head of marketing then added that the company wants to be as self-sufficient as possible: “My father, and in general everybody who works at Pagani, has this approach that if we feel capable of doing something, we'll do it internally. But if not, we won't.”
However, it cannot ignore experts in their fields and can benefit from collaboration. “I think you have to be blind to say, 'I'll do things by myself because I'm better than the others.' If you're open, you can get sources of amazing components that are custom to your car,” remarked Pagani. “We don't take things out of other vehicles – everything is developed for Pagani cars.”
If Pagani looks for help from a third party, it will be closely involved with all development to ensure it still feels like a Pagani product, and we think there is a company that can meet these expectations with relative ease.
Pagani
Rimac has been spearheading the high-performance electric revolution, not just with its record-breaking Nevera but also with electric components that it supplies to powerhouses like Koenigsegg and Hyundai. Its founder and CEO, Mate Rimac, has often remarked that he thinks the existing componentry of the Nevera could be made even more powerful and efficient, suggesting that lightweight EVs with silly power can happen.
If Rimac can build a bespoke platform for Pagani someday (it surely could), Pagani may just make the leap. But until battery packs are much lighter or legislation forces its hand, Pagani's V12 will live on.
Pagani is one of the few automakers that are exempt from the European Union's CO2 ban. As it produces fewer than 1,000 vehicles a year, the high-end carmaker will be permitted to continue manufacturing combustion vehicles beyond 2035. Until then, the V12 powerplant is safe.
Pagani
Keyword: Pagani Reiterates That An Electric Supercar Is Too Heavy