Even Pagani is considering an SUV

Like flesh-eating bacteria or Agent Smith in “The Matrix,” once SUVs found a way into the automotive ecosystem, they became inexorable. In an interview with Autocar, Horacio Pagani admitted he’s considered developing a jacked-up roustabout because “it is something that has been discussed a number of times with collectors.” In case there’s anyone left bemoaning the death of some Platonic automaker purity, that lonely soul will have at least six years to carry the torch for Pagani, since an SUV wouldn’t arrive before 2025. If a Pagani brute-ute should happen, the captain assures all it will be true to his brand even though he’d lean on his Mercedes-Benz engine partner for more technology. “[The SUV] would need to have a price tag of €3 million ($3.3M) or above to be in line with our current strategy. We don’t know if there is any market for such a product, but there could not be any compromise.” 

Before then, the Huayra successor codenamed C10 should make itself known in 2022. Turns out, though, that the C10 and the Pagani electric car we’ve heard is also on the way are mostly the same vehicle. The standard C10 will use an updated version of the twin-turbo Mercedes-AMG V12 that Pagani has put to good use ever since the Zonda, and that Pagani says will remain road-legal until 2026. The C10 will also come with a manual transmission. The electric version will use a modified version of the C10’s architecture and come in 2024.  

The company head didn’t say anything else about the electric model, but did say that an increase in a different kind of customer encouraged the firm’s electric plans. Whereas the Zonda buyers in the beginning “tended to be car collectors in Europe in their 50s or above,” the years and new models have attracted more younger buyers from Asia and North America. That’s a far cry from Pagani’s sentiment in March, when he said, “None of our customers or dealers want to know about an electric car. They don’t want to know anything about it. They’re not interested. It’s a huge challenge for us, because no one is asking for it.” Perhaps he’s realized that if he builds it, they will come.

For the moment, Pagani’s going to be busy with what’s officially called the last Huayra model, the Huayra BC roadster, for at least the next two years until the C10 arrives, and possibly afterward. Pagani admits that private requests could “probably extend the [Huayra’s] lifespan a little more,” which wouldn’t be anything new for the firm. The Zonda has been playing the Agent Smith game itself, refusing to die for six years now. Scheduled to end production in 2013, then again with the Zonda Barchetta in 2017 — after launching in 1999 — Pagani just introduced a new Zonda in June this year called the Zonda Zun. That’s the kind of inexorable we can get behind.