The Verdict on Ferrari’s Controversial First Electric Car

Ferrari’s famed former chairman, Luca di Montezemolo, said in 2011 that the company would never make an electric car. He no longer runs the firm, and earlier this week, at an event in Rome, Ferrari unveiled its first electric car, the Luce.Ferrari Luce Exterior. Courtesy of FerrariThe on-paper specs put it among the highest-performing cars on the planet. This four-door, five-seat, 4,982-pound EV uses four electric motors to produce 1,035 horsepower and hits 0-to-60 in 2.5 seconds. It had better, given that it starts at $640,000 before Ferrari’s infamously expensive options, paints, and dealer markups. It should drive better than almost any other EV because Ferrari built an original electric platform for it. With a motor at each wheel, this should be able to torque-vector better than any other electric car — dynamically adjusting exactly how much power goes to each corner — and with such short overhangs, the wheels truly sit at the corners. The Luce will apparently not use fake exhaust sounds, piped through speakers, but instead use the real sound of the motors, filtered and tuned. Ferrari has also used the battery cleverly to improve the car’s structural rigidity, placing it as low as possible and making it a structural part of the chassis. Ferrari credits this with a 25 percent gain in bending rigidity and a 35 percent gain in torsional rigidity over previous four-door Ferrari applications, presumably including the current Purosangue.Many large, luxurious performance SUVs now exist, yet the Purosangue has a reputation for top-of-class driving dynamics, so the Luce should do the same. Almost none of the Purosangue’s drivers will ever use that performance, and that will be even more true here. Ferrari seems to know this: in its unveiling video, the Luce is never seen driving. Instead, a man gets into the back seat and adjusts the tactile controls. Given how many wealthy Chinese car owners are driven, rather than driving themselves, the target market is obvious.What’s more important is that the Luce is appealing. The car’s looks, designed by LoveFrom, the company founded by Jony Ive — previously responsible for some of Apple’s most famous products — come into play here.The initial response has been shock and outrage from people who would never have bought an electric Ferrari anyway and who have a limited understanding of Ferrari’s history. Yet the design does not seem, on first reaction, to be a great success.It should be noted that most of Mr. Ive’s classic Apple designs were loathed or mocked on release. I don’t expect the Luce to be remembered like the iMac, but I do expect that, like the AirPods, it will soon be seen as chic and distinct, if not beloved.Ferrari Luce Exterior. Courtesy of FerrariTo break down the shape: the car is meant to recall a more classic sedan profile — with a long hood and a flat trunk — but it is another spin on the aero-blob silhouette that defines the modern high-end electric car. That silhouette provides a good drag coefficient for range while still keeping good headroom, and Mr. Ive did not really have the option of working outside that frame. Instead, he has tried to reduce the visual weight and make it feel more like a sedan, adding black skirts that shrink the bodyside, a black glasshouse at the top, and then a gloss-black hood that runs from the line of the windshield to the bottom of the front grille, creating a front wing above the headlights.The split between the black and body color does help reduce the car’s visual weight and creates the impression of a black glass curve emerging from a boxier, retro sedan. The issue is that, to make the car look less tall, Ferrari also fitted huge wheels — 24-inch rims at the rear and 23-inch rims at the front — which make the car look too short and narrow, like a toy car. Though the car shares little with Ferrari’s most iconic models, it has subtle references to the brand’s back catalog, with rear lights inspired by the 360 and a general silhouette — short, four-seat Ferrari with a black-bar front, squat rear, and thick flying buttress — that pays homage to the Ferrari Dino 308 GT4. The black-bar, faceless front is a core part of the brand’s current design language.Ferrari Luce Exterior. Courtesy of FerrariMany of these ideas have been done before. The front is the car’s best angle — with the front wing, rectangular faux-grille inlet, and minimal headlights — but a version of this was already done better on the Dodge Charger Daytona SRT concept. It also has similarities to the Honda 0 SUV concept and the Honda e hatchback, and though this reference was definitely not in Ive’s mind, the combination of suicide doors, blank face, flat sedan boot, and a windshield flowing into the front fascia was also used on the 2002 GM Hy-Wire concept.2002 GM Hy-Wire Concept. Courtesy of General MotorsDodge Charger Daytona SRT Concept. Courtesy of StellantisOverall, the exterior is better than the internet’s outrage would suggest — online commentators forget that Enzo Ferrari was not a purist and did not care much about his road cars so long as they paid for his racing programs, and that he favored comfortable, slow sedans — but it is not as interesting, original, or cohesive as a Jony Ive and Marc Newson design ought to be. The Lucid Air is a more attractive, more interesting EV, and that was designed by relative nobodies at a brand few people think about. A Ferrari EV ought to do more than that. Though this car has some strong angles, it can also look fat and awkward from others.Also, this car should only be available with the five-spoke Ferrari wheels. They are gorgeous, whereas its aerodynamic disk wheels are among the ugliest ever fitted to a production car. Ferrari Luce Interior. Courtesy of FerrariThe interior is ultimately this car’s main focus, and on seeing the unveil, it’s not surprising Ferrari previewed it so early and in such detail. In photographs, it doesn’t look as expensive as it should — Bentley and Rolls-Royce interiors look plusher — but the simplicity, thoughtfulness, and retro-futurism of it all are charming, and it is an incomparable upgrade over the rest of the Ferrari lineup. If I were a Purosangue owner, I would be annoyed that this wasn’t fitted on my car. The back seat also looks like a comfortable place to be, which is where most of its buyers will be sitting anyway.Ferrari Luce Interior. Courtesy of FerrariIt’s not a stunning car, but it’s distinct, luxurious, powerful, and likely to reach the customers Ferrari built it for: buyers who are new to the brand and the ultra-wealthy in Communist China. That doesn’t mean it will sell well, or at least as well as Ferrari hopes, but they’ve given it a good shot.For a wealthy tech employee, this is the ultimate car, with great performance, clever design, and an association with perhaps the most important product designer alive. For Chinese customers, it’s more premium and expensive than any local option, doesn’t look like any Chinese EV, and fits their needs perfectly, with a big boot and a spacious, luxurious back seat accessed by rear-hinged ‘suicide doors.” It arrives with dealers next year.

The Verdict on Ferrari’s Controversial First Electric Car

The Verdict on Ferrari’s Controversial First Electric Car

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