Pagani Says Nobody Wanted Its Electric Supercar

Pagani EV, Anyone?

With the way things are going, it almost feels like there's no escaping electrification. Granted, there are still some markets that sell ICEs by the boatload, but hybridization has practically become the norm, and EVs are mainstream in several countries. Even the supercar world isn't spared.

That said, there are still some holdouts, including Pagani. Throughout its history, it's only been V12s that resided under the clamshells of its cars. After all, this is the company that will still build you a Zonda, a car that first came out at the tail end of the 20th century. But at one point, there was actually a plan to build an EV, as confirmed by the company's founder and namesake, Horacio Pagani.

The Daunting Complexity

As reported by ItalPassion, Pagani told audiences at Ignition about that time the company drummed up plans for an electric supercar. At the same time, he told attendees the reasons why it simply never happened, starting with the complexity.

While Pagani builds exotics, it simply doesn't have the financial might of, say, Ferrari or Lamborghini. Its expertise has always been in internal combustion, and developing a powerful EV powertrain from scratch as reliably as possible was always going to be a monumental task.

Still, it was worth a punt, and the project kicked off around the same time as the Utopia's development. However, the resources just weren't there, as Pagani explained. Translated from Italian, he said, "We worked on it until 2022. For me, it was a much more difficult project, and we ended up spending more time on the electric car than on the one with an internal combustion engine."

Not Worth the Effort

Still, there are projects worth the hardships, but what sealed the electric Pagani's fate was the lack of demand for a battery-powered supercar. "No one showed any interest in this idea. I would have liked to see it come to fruition, if only to recoup the investments we’d made. We’re too small a company to work on projects that don't pan out," said Pagani.

The company's founder isn't anti-EV by any means. Instead, he's simply being practical, citing his customers' lack of interest in an electric model. Again, why build something no one wants? It's pure business sense.

In the end, the EV Pagani never went past the drawing board, although the founder himself said that he's not closing the door on it completely just yet. He praised the Pininfarina Battista, calling it "high-performance and successful," suggesting there is a market for its electric supercars. Right now, however, Pagani customers aren't into it.

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