The Luce EV arrived in Rome on Monday night, making a big statement as Ferrari’s (RACE) first fully electric car. Featuring a design vastly different from the Italian automaker’s current offerings, the company argues that change was needed for the first “electric Ferrari,” with a new market, new clients in focus, and a price of $640,000 or more.
Market reaction to the car was negative on Tuesday morning, with Ferrari shares trading in New York down over 5%.
While current Ferrari sports cars like the Amalfi, 296 GTB, and even the Purosangue SUV share recognizable similarities like muscular fenders, a wide track, and hexagonal grilles and aggressive air intakes, the Luce is a departure.
The aerodynamics-forward design features a wedge-shaped glass-domed shell that houses the cabin, which sits between the front and rear sections of the car, almost floating. The Luce fenders are narrower and less aggressive than a typical Ferrari, and it features a higher cabin and seating position due to the battery positioned on the floor.
Overall, surfaces are smooth, continuous, and convex, with no sharp edges or angles. And maybe that’s because Maranello-based Ferrari commissioned LoveFrom, the creative agency founded by former Apple chief designer Jony Ive, to lead design on both the exterior and interior.
“We want to bring something that we consider as a game changer, really talk in a different language,” Ferrari’s chief commercial officer, Enrico Galliera, said in an interview with Yahoo Finance. “We can maintain our current [design language], which is the current offer, satisfying our clients, and we want to test something completely different with different approaches.”
The Luce highlights distinct advancements Ferrari has made with electrification. It has a quad-motor setup, or as Ferrari calls it, “electric engines” powering each wheel, for instant response and increased agility. In addition to the four motors, the Luce features four-wheel steering and a new adaptive suspension system, giving the car more control and better handling.
The motors include carbon sleeves for weight savings and faster rotational speeds, as well as high-voltage inverter tech that comes directly from its racing efforts. The power under the Luce’s skin is impressive, producing over 1050 horsepower and a sub 2.5 second 0-60mph time.
But it’s the design that has the automotive world, and Ferrari fans, at attention. Galliera was blunt about why Ferrari felt it had to start from scratch rather than electrify an existing platform like the Purosangue.
“We started from the technology, how can we use the technology to create something unique,” he said. Bolting batteries into an existing two-door grand tourer, he added, “would have been very simple, but it was not the [aim].” The five-seat, four-door layout — a first for Ferrari — means a new platform was needed.
Inside, the same logic continues, but one that Ferrari clients will likely embrace. The thin-rimmed steering wheel is 100% recycled aluminum, with real buttons and mechanical dials — no touch-sensitive panel here. Precision-machined mechanical buttons, toggles, and switches in anodized aluminum sit alongside multifunctional next-gen Samsung OLED displays that are rich in terms of detail, with color depth unlike any other car infotainment system.
The fit and finish, materials, and tactile nature of LoveFrom’s design is something many hope Ferrari will bring to its other gas-powered vehicles.
The market for a Ferrari EV
The overall package will be important for the market Ferrari is pursuing, with new clients at the forefront.
Analyst reaction to the car was mixed, with some seeing the car as necessary for the near future but somewhat underwhelming in the present.
“[Monday’s] update is in line with expectations — a very polarizing EV offering,” Evercore ISI analyst Michael Binetti wrote in a research note. “RACE will certainly need to dig into its clienteling skills to find new clients interested in Luce, as our checks suggest dealers are finding very little demand from existing Ferrari clients.”
At its capital markets day last year, the company said it was targeting an 80% split between new customers and existing Ferrari clients for the Luce.
Galliera said that the split is already moving, based on what current Ferrari clients are telling him. “I think the number of [existing clients] will be much higher than that,” he said, because existing collectors view the first-ever electric Ferrari as a milestone in its own right and are “knocking at the door.”
The reaction from non-Ferrari clients who previewed the car was “extremely positive,” Galliera added.
Whether the broader market embraces the Luce’s design or treats it as a step too far from Ferrari’s illustrious design DNA remains to be seen. A starting price of 550,000 euros in Italy (US and European pricing coming soon) may also be a hurdle, even for deep-pocketed buyers.
And then there is the state of luxury EVs: Rival Lamborghini canceled its upcoming EV due to a lack of demand, while Bentley has delayed its first EV on several instances but is still on track to debut it later this year. Porsche’s (PAH3.DE) Taycan and Lucid’s (LCID) Air sedans have been struggling recently.
“We still have a lot to learn as it seems the car will be almost entirely sold to new clients that aren’t yet part of the Ferrari client base…and those clients are likely not participating in today’s online narrative on the release,” Evercore’s Binetti added.
Galliera, for his part, is confident Ferrari has something that will resonate with current and new customers.
“Honestly, the number of models that are competing in this segment are very few, and none of them has been developed with the approach we try to have,” he said. “I wouldn’t say there is a real competitor in the market, and I wouldn’t say that there’s a car competing with the Ferrari product, it’s really a different animal.”