The heart of any Pagani is its engine, and when it came to the successor of the Huayra, Horacio Pagani and his team knew exactly where to start. The collaboration with Mercedes-AMG initially focused on a twin-turbo V8 hybrid, the presumed future of hypercars but that idea was axed fairly quickly as it would add too much weight.
Unveiled in September 2022, the Utopia Roadster proudly sported a 6.0-litre, twin-turbo V12 – a defiant statement against industry trends. No electric motors, no batteries, just pure, unadulterated driving pleasure.
According to Horacio Pagani, customer demand played a pivotal role in rejecting electrification. “In reality, no one is interested in a hybrid car,” he told The Drive. “And I have hybrids in my collection; I have a Porsche 918 and a few more. But when it’s time for me to take a Porsche out for a spin, I’ll take my 911R or Carrera GT. Our clients think along those lines. I believe that if you ask people, most of them will say that a hybrid is something extraordinary because it has all the problems of an electric car and all the problems of a combustion car—along with higher [development and maintenance] costs.”
According to Pagani, the current V12 and its future evolutions are homologated until 2031, allowing him to “give the client what it wants” until then. As far as what’s coming after 2031, Pagani put it this way: “We’re doing everything we can to keep the V12.”