Pagani’s Utopia Hypercar Could Have Been All-Electric—But No One Wanted It
When Pagani announced its Utopia hypercarHypercarAn extreme, limited-production performance car that sits above supercars in power, technology, price, and exclusivity, often featuring hybrid powertrains and advanced aerodynamics. Hypercars act as rolling engineering showcases, and modelsGo to Hypercar Glossary in 2022, it was a bit of a curiosity, at the time, why an all-electric version wasn’t an option, given the prevailing winds back then, and instead just a 852-horsepower V-12 engine. Now, we know the answer: Customers simply didn’t want it.
At that point, the run of 99 Utopias was already spoken for, even before the car had been delivered, which is a testament to Pagani’s pedigree. The price was said to be around $2.2 million, and a Utopia Roadster later debuted in 2024, of which only 130 were planned, with a price said to be north of $3 million.
At that time, Horacio Pagani said his eponymous company had also seriously considered making the Utopia hybrid with help from Mercedes-AMG, an idea which was discarded in part because it would make the car heavier. Pagani left the door open for a possible electric Utopia, but, according to new comments from the company, it seems firmly shut now. There will, in all likelihood, be no electric Utopia, even if a future Pagani may be all-electric when customers come around.
“No one showed interest,” Sebastian Berridi, a spokesman for the company, recently told CarBuzz. “We are a family-owned company, so we had to abandon the battery-electric vehicle. It’s a shame because we invested a lot in research and development. We were very close to suppliers for Mercedes-AMG. They were at the peak of technology. We had to cancel it. We have to make a sustainable company, and we can’t go against our economic interest.”
It’s possible that at least one person showed interest in an all-electric Utopia, though for a small company like Pagani, each car is its own sort of gamble, which is why you usually see hypercars sell out the moment they are announced and before they are even built. Some of that is built-in exclusivity, which is part of the sales pitch to buyers, too, but it’s more because of simple supply and demand.
Pagani is only building 99 original Utopias, but might have built 99 more if there were customers. It also would have built all-electric Utopias, too, if people were interested. Maybe next time.
Photos: Pagani
This article originally appeared in Robb Report US.