When Pagani was developing the Utopia, the original plan was to offer it with an all-electric drivetrain. While the model ultimately landed on the market with the traditional V12 the company was known for, Pagani has admitted that it initially assumed there would need to be an electrified variant. However, literally none of its customers wanted an EV and that’s a pretty big deal when your typical production run averages out to about ten vehicles per year.
While we don’t expect the average car person to be a hardcore Pagani fan — as their models retail for several million dollars — the story is of particular interest because it seems to run counter to industry assertions made about all-electric vehicles. There was even a period where it seemed like EVs were catering to the financial elite, perhaps indicating they knew something the rest of us did not.
That’s due to some prejudicial presumptions on my part, albeit not without some evidence. In my neighborhood, the households with electric vehicles tend to list on the market for a little more. An occasional spin on the riding lawnmower is likewise the only maintenance you’re likely to see the owners do. They’re hiring someone else to clean the gutters and are keeping their all-electric pickups pristine for when they go out for dinner.
But we’ve likewise seen a lot of high-end nameplates fielding EVs as luxury vehicles, often with elevated price tags and outstanding 0-60 times. Granted, some of the cost was offset by federal tax credits. However, it’s incredibly rare to see economy focused electrics outside of city centers.
Pagani is suggesting that at the tippy top of the automotive market, where a single car can be sold for over $3 million (USD), isn’t even remotely interested in EVs. During the Goodwood Festival of Speed, the brand even informed CarBuzz that the company had initially assumed the Pagani Utopia would become its model without a V12 engine — until customers said they weren’t interested.
“When we started the development of the Utopia eight years ago, we dedicated a team to a fully battery-electric model. The idea was to launch an electric Utopia and combustion version. We never thought of a hybrid because we believed it was very complex. The technology was not at its peak in that period,” Sebastian Berridi, press relations and events at Pagani Automobili, told the outlet.
“We showed the idea to our dealers and our customers, but no one showed interest. We are a family-owned company, so we had to abandon the battery-electric vehicle,” Berridi continued. “It’s a shame because we invested a lot in research and development. We were very close to suppliers for Mercedes-AMG. They were at the peak of technology. We had to cancel it. We have to make a sustainable company, and we can’t go against our economic interest.”
Considering that Pagani has only ever produced three models since it came into existence in 1992, and each of those barely crests 100 units over production runs lasting a decade or two, failing to appease its clientele is effectively a death sentence. Changing the recipe would not only have increased development costs, it would have also resulted in a multi-million-dollar car nobody wanted to buy.
Anyone who has ever seen the inside of a Pagani vehicle likewise knows that it’s basically the automotive equivalent of a high-end skeleton watch. Showing off the mechanical nature of the product is the whole point. Cars are entirely hand built — using loads of genuine leather and polished aluminum for the interior.
Pagani likewise said that electrification would add weight to the vehicle, reducing nimbleness. While acceleration could be boosted with the assistance of an electrified drivetrain, EVs tend to lack the positive feedback of more mechanical designs. Pagani’s clientele wants to buy something with a personality, not simply have the quickest vehicle to 100 mph. Speed is no longer the deciding factor at the tippy top of the automotive market.
From CarBuzz:
Pagani is not the only company that has struggled to garner interest in an electric supercar. Even after breaking almost every imaginable acceleration record, the Rimac Nevera is not sold out, despite being limited to just 150 units. If we had to guess why demand is so low, it’s because there are so many electric cars that deliver heart-stopping acceleration for a fraction of the price: Tesla Model S Plaid and Lucid Air Sapphire to name a few. Electric supercars are heavier than their gas counterparts, and don’t offer the exotic sound of a V12 engine, thus wealthy customers aren’t asking for them.
This doesn’t mean Pagani will never do an EV. It just means we may not see such a car in the near future.
The featherweight Pagani Utopia presently comes with a 6.0-liter twin-turbocharged V12 boasting 850 horsepower and 810 foot-pounds of torque. Even if it doesn’t quite match the 0-60 time of a Tesla Model S Plaid, almost nobody is going to accuse it of being too slow.
But things may change. With more mainstream models now seeing improved acceleration via technological advancements, supercar companies may be required to leverage more electrification to stay competitive. We’ve already seen this happening to brands Ferrari and Pagani has likewise said it hasn’t ruled out hybridization. The other factor is obviously government regulations. But low-volume brands (e.g. supercar manufacturers) have typically been exempt from stringent emissions standards in Europe.
“We still research electric cars because Horacio [Pagani] is a very curious person with a scientific approach to life,” Berridi noted. “If we are to research an electric Pagani, it must drive like a Pagani. Today, that’s not available. Simulations show the car would weigh 600-700 kilograms more. And an electric Pagani would not improve our ecological footprint; just look at the annual mileage of our cars.”
[Images: Pagani Automobili]
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