Not so long ago we learned that Pagani is already at work developing its first all-electric hypercar, due to arrive in or around 2025. Although it's still quite a few years away, automotive masterpieces require time, and Pagani never builds anything less than perfection. But why is Pagani skipping straight to an EV instead of doing a hybrid first? Speaking to Autocar, Horacio Pagani himself had a very clear and completely logical answer.
As the very satisfied owner of a Porsche 918 Spyder, Pagani has had time to study the car and apply some lessons to his own company. "I imagine a car that is fully electric," he said. "I love the design and the style of the 918, but it will only allow you to drive around 25 km (15.5 miles) in full-electric mode. When the battery runs out, you are still carrying the batteries around with your combustion engine. That's about 300kg (661 pounds) of weight – useless weight." Because of Pagani's expertise in lightweight materials, such as the new carbon fiber with titanium weave, the EV's goal is cut weight as much as possible, which makes sense considering the batteries are anything but light.
But fortunately, Pagani's EV development partner, Mercedes-Benz, knows what it's doing (it will soon enter Formula E). Also remember that Pagani managed to further reduce the weight of the Huayra Roadster over the coupe variant. Typically, the opposite happens. "We're not really challenging the crazy horsepower. It is more about lightweight vehicles with extremely good drivability," he says. "Transfer this to an electric vehicle and you can imagine what we are looking for: an extremely light weight that will probably be a benchmark for electric cars in the future." As we also reported earlier, Pagani is keen for this future EV to be equipped with a manual transmission, something Mercedes engineers told him would be possible.
Assuming the Pagani EV does make its debut appearance in 2025, this would also be the 26th anniversary of when the Zonda had its unveiling at Geneva. And for the record, Pagani has no plans to stop building cars with internal combustion – even after the EV launches.
