Pagani has presented the new Utopia Roadster. A supercar at the height of the Italian hyper-luxury brand in every sense. Excessive in its aesthetics, in its mechanical proposal and, of course, in its Price. But, nevertheless, very little excessive in terms of weight. One of the big reasons, according to Horacio Pagani, why they don’t make electric cars.
Although most of the details were already known, Horacio Pagani has presented in society his last jewel. A supercar that targets the most purists with one of those formulas that never fails: insane engine and low weight.
One of those formulas that do not seem to be able to deliver electric cars at the moment and that is, according to the company’s boss, one of the main reasons why they do not make electric cars.
The weight problem
Beyond power, if something makes the lover of classic sports cars happy, it is lightness. It is something that Pagani boasts about, what Lotus has boasted about and what, of course, an electric car cannot boast about.
The new Pagani Utopia Roadster is an ode to purism. 6.0-liter twin-turbo V12 engine developed by Mercedes-AMG that delivers up to 863 HP of power. With a torque of 1,100 Nm between 2,800 rpm and 5,900 rpm, they make the Pagani a true missile in a very wide rev range. If we add that its weight barely remains at 1,280 kg, we have a sports car without any type of electrification and with the possibility of mounting a seven-speed robotic manual gearbox to reach a top speed of 349 km/h.
“We have noticed that our client, the Pagani client, the same one who asks you for a manual transmission, does not want to know anything about an electric car,” said Horacio Pagani in an interview with Top Gearwhere the company leader has expressed his opinion on an electric future for Pagani.
According to the manager, “it is ridiculous” that companies are choosing to convince customers to switch to electric cars by pure power. “Why does a normal car have 900 horsepower and an electric car have to have 2,000 horsepower? I consider it ridiculous. Those cars with so much power and so heavy can be very unsafe,” he said in the interview.
Pagani also gives the example of the Rimac Nevera, an electric car with meteoric figures, but he also talks about Lotus. Horacio Pagani says of both companies that they are “nice cars, and I have acquaintances who have driven them and They say they are going very well“but it is clear that the power and the obligation to have so much weight makes them unrecommended cars.
The words are especially interesting if we take into account that Pagani has fled from the electrification of its models. These Italian supercars do not add a single HP of power through electricity and are committed to keeping the weight as contained as possible, one of the great criticisms that has been made of Lotus.
The British company, created by Colin Chapman, always had in mind being first light and then powerful. Something that has taken a backseat with launches that weigh around 2,000 kg.
“We see it, when we go to 50 HP more, we review all the traction and electronic systems with Bosch. Increasing the weight leads us, in this case with Pirelli, to review the tires,” concluded Pagani, who explains how the overweight in this type of car.
A repeating trend
Pagani’s case is particular. The Italian company can afford to forget about electrifying its supercars for the simple reason that they barely manufacture units at the end of the year. It must be taken into account that the new Euro 7 emissions regulations are expected to only apply to manufacturers that produce more than 10,000 units per year.
If you thought the creation of a Lamborghini Revuelto was expensive, it has nothing to do with a Pagani. Horacio’s cars are authentic gems of which they only produce 40 each year. Manufacturing a unit can take more than half a year. Therefore, its impact on the total sum of emissions is negligible on the overall balance.
This takes to the extreme the trend that manufacturers seem to be living with the electric car. The more expensive it is within a range of high-end or luxury vehicles, the less it is purchased. Mercedes has experienced it but Rimac is also experiencing it firsthand. And both Horacio Pagani and Mate Rimac, director of the company, point to the same problem:
I think the politicians rushed it. They should have given the electric car time to enter the market little by little. Instead, plans with incentives and laws for 2035 have created confusion. And now, the traditional industry is paying for that. Because the client is not ready and neither is the infrastructure. I think we need to slow everything down a little. Encourage that in the city it is better to get around with a small electric car, that does not have many horses, that can be plugged in anywhere. And not demand too much from society
The electric car, despite everything, is a good incentive for the company. Pagani has already sold the 130 cars it will produce of the Pagani Utopia Roadster, which are sold with a starting price of three million euros.
These types of cars are a investmentwith technical characteristics that are beginning to make them an endangered species. To the above we must add that combustion engines are positioning themselves as a differential value in supercars in the coming years.
It is something that Lamborghini agreed on in an informal chat during our test of the Lamborghini Revuelto. If the electric car is the most common technology on the market, the wealthy client You will be even more willing to spend more money to have something that can only be achieved at a prohibitive price. Either because such a small number of units are manufactured that regulations do not affect them or because they are positioned as the top of the range because they are a differential purchase value in and of themselves.
And the feeling that politicians have pushed everything possible to accept the transition to electric cars in the shortest possible time is not helping to sell luxury cars powered by this technology.
Photos | Pagani
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