“We aren’t really challenging with crazy horsepower,” he said, although we note that the Huayra roadster has 720 horsepower, “it is more about lightweight vehicles with extremely good drivability. That’s something Pagani thinks will help the firm deal with the weight and size of battery packs. His own company, founded in 1992, has always been at the cutting edge of materials technology. After leaving his native Argentina for Italy, he rose to become Lamborghini’s head of composites and was the driving force behind the creation of the forward-looking Countach Evoluzione concept in 1987, a one-off that swapped the metal structure of Lamborghini’s infamous supercar for one made of lightweight materials including, Kevlar and carbon fiber. Horacio Pagani has always been a pioneer. “The technologies and safety standards you need are completely different from any combustion-engine car production-we’re talking about 800 volts-so all of the training and the technicians will have to be up to the standards to work on such a vehicle.” Already, by the end of 2018, the idea is to have a section where electric cars can be developed and tested. The management is already organizing the company to have a division specifically for electric cars. “That is not something you can just pretend not to see, that everyone is developing something in this direction.
“There is electric-car research already ongoing,” Pagani said. But work has already begun on producing an electron-propelled version as well. There are no plans to end production of internal-combustion Paganis beyond 2020, when the production run of the Huayra roadster concludes. Our interview with him on the company’s stand at the Geneva auto show was conducted through an interpreter-Pagani insists that he doesn’t speak English, while proclaiming so in English-but there was nothing lost in translation about the intensity of the feelings he holds for his company and its future. Yet the company is now actively planning an electric future, with founder Horacio Pagani confirming that work has begun on the creation of what will become a high-powered EV. The grand total comprises 136 of the original Zonda in its many guises, 100 Huayra coupes, and, most recently, the first tranche of the recently launched Huayra roadster, which will also be limited to just 100 examples.
In the 19 years since it launched its first model, the company has produced fewer cars than Ferrari or Lamborghini makes in a month. When compared to Italy’s longer-established supercar makers, Pagani remains a minnow.
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