Pagani preparing for electric future – report

Pagani is getting ready to end production of the Huayra, raising a fairly big question: what's next for the Italian-Argentinian hypercar maker?

According to a report by Road & Track, the brand's future could be electric. Although the story makes clear there are no plans to end internal-combustion development, it's clear Horacio Pagani, company founder, is looking to electric motors for potential future models.

"There is electric-car research already ongoing," Pagani told Road & Track. 

"That is not something you can just pretend not to see, that everyone is developing something in this direction. The management is already organizing the company to have a division specifically for electric cars."

"Already, by the end of 2018, the idea is to have a section where electric cars can be developed and tested," he added.

As for where that electric know-how will come from? The company shares (or takes, more accurately) power plants from Mercedes-AMG, which has recently pushed into the world of hybrid power with its AMG 53 models, but Horacio Pagani was open in his criticism of hybrid vehicles like the Porsche 918 Spyder.

Mercedes is investing heavily in electric mobility, and has also committed to Formula E, suggesting full-electric performance powertrains could be coming soon from the German manufacturer.

"I imagine a car that is fully electric," Pagani said. "I love the design and the style of the 918, but when the battery runs out you are still carrying the batteries around with your combustion engine. That’s about [300kg] of weight, useless weight."

There's even talk about a manual transmission in electric cars from Pagani, although whether it's practical remains to be seen.

"For us it is a challenge, but also a goal, to try to create an electric emotion,” Horacio Pagani said, before elaborating on how that could happen.

"That was the first question when I went to the design and engineering team: can we have a manual transmission with an electric car?”

Here's hoping the answer is yes.

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