Pagani explained why electric cars crash among millionaires

Pagani has unveiled the new Utopia Roadster. A supercar at the pinnacle of the Italian hyper-luxury marque in every sense. Excessive in its aesthetics, in its mechanical characteristics and, of course, in price. But, nevertheless, there is very little excess weight. According to Horacio Pagani, this is one of the main reasons why they do not produce electric cars.

Although most of the details were already known, Horacio Pagani presented to the public his last jewel. A supercar aimed at most purists, with one of those formulas that never fails: crazy engine and low weight.

One of those formulas that doesn’t seem to be able to produce electric cars at the moment, and this, according to the head of the company, is one of the main reasons why they don’t produce electric cars.

Weight problem

Beyond power, if there’s one thing a classic sports car enthusiast enjoys, it’s lightness. This is what Pagani brags about, what Lotus boasts about, and what electric cars certainly don’t.

The new Pagani Utopia Roadster is an ode to purism. 6.0-litre V12 twin-turbocharged engine developed by Mercedes-AMG and developing power up to 863 hp. With 1,100 Nm of torque between 2,800 and 5,900 rpm, they make the Pagani a real rocket across a very wide rev range. If we add that its weight barely remains at 1280 kg, then we have a sports car without any electrification and with the option of installing a seven-speed robotic manual transmission to achieve a top speed of 349 km/h.

“We noticed that our client, the Pagani client, the one who asks you for a manual transmission, does not want to know anything about an electric car,” Horacio Pagani said in an interview with the publication Top Gearwhere the company’s chief expressed his views on Pagani’s electric future.

The manager says it’s “ridiculous” that companies are deciding to convince customers to switch to electric vehicles through clean energy. “Why does a regular car have 900 horsepower, but an electric car has 2,000 horsepower? I think it’s ridiculous. Such powerful and heavy cars can be very unsafe,” he said in an interview.

Pagani also cites the example of the Rimac Nevera, an electric car with vertiginous figures, but also talks about Lotus. Horacio Pagani says of both companies that they are “good cars, and I have friends who have driven them and They say things are going very well“But obviously the power and the need to carry so much weight makes them not recommended vehicles.

The words are especially interesting considering that Pagani has moved away from electrifying its models. These Italian supercars don’t add a single hp. power through electricity and strive to keep weight as low as possible, which is one of the biggest criticisms of Lotus.

The British company, created by Colin Chapman, has always strived to be first light, then powerful. Something that faded into the background during launches weighing about 2000 kg.

“We see this when we move to 50 hp. Moreover, we check all traction and electronic systems together with Bosch. The increase in weight forces us, in this case with Pirelli, to reconsider the tires,” concluded Pagani, who explains why there is excess weight in this type of car.

Recurring trend

Pagani’s case is special. The Italian company can afford to forget about electrifying its supercars for the simple reason that at the end of the year they hardly produce them. It should be taken into account that the new Euro 7 emission regulations are expected to only apply to manufacturers that produce more than 10,000 units per year.

If you thought the Lamborghini Revuelto was expensive to create, it has nothing to do with the Pagani. Horacio’s cars are real jewels, of which they produce only 40 a year. Manufacturing the unit may take more than six months. Therefore, its impact on the total amount of emissions is insignificant in the overall balance.

This takes to an extreme the trend in which manufacturers seem to be living with electric vehicles. The more expensive it is among high-end or luxury cars, the less people buy it. Mercedes experienced this, but Rimac also experienced it first hand. Both Horacio Pagani and company director Mate Rimac point to the same problem:

I think the politicians were too hasty. They should have given the electric car time to gradually enter the market. Instead, plans with incentives and laws for 2035 created confusion. And now the traditional industry is paying the price. Because the client is not ready and neither is the infrastructure. I think we need to slow things down a little. Encourage that it is better to get around the city in a small electric car that has few horses and can be plugged in anywhere. And don’t demand too much from society

An electric car, no matter what, is a good incentive for the company. Pagani has already sold 130 of the Pagani Utopia Roadsters it will produce, which have a starting price of three million euros.

These types of cars are investmentswith technical characteristics that are beginning to make them an endangered species. To the above, we must add that internal combustion engines will position themselves as the hallmark of supercars in the coming years.

Lamborghini agreed on this in an informal conversation during our test of the Lamborghini Revuelto. If the electric car is the most common technology on the market, rich client You will be even more willing to spend more money to get something that can only be achieved at an exorbitant price. Either because such a small number of units are produced that they are not affected by regulations, or because they are positioned as the best of the range because they themselves represent a differentiated purchase price.

And the perception that politicians have pushed everything possible to embrace the shift to electric vehicles as quickly as possible doesn’t help sell luxury cars equipped with the technology.

Photos | Pagani

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