The Italian sports car maker unveiled Luce,
its first all-electric model, amid wider worries about the luxury E.V. market.
·
Ferrari
unveiled “Luce” on 25 May 2026, marking the company’s first fully electric
vehicle (EV).
·
The
five-seater electric sports car represents one of the biggest strategic bets in
Ferrari’s history.
·
The
launch comes at a time when several luxury automakers are scaling back or
delaying EV ambitions because of slowing demand and rising costs.
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Luce
is capable of reaching nearly 200 miles per hour.
·
The
vehicle uses:
o Four electric motors (one per wheel)
o A large battery pack integrated into the
floor structure
o Four-wheel drive technology
·
The
car offers:
o Four doors
o Large luggage space
o Approximately 530 km (329 miles) driving
range on a full charge
·
The
design was developed in collaboration with LoveFrom,
the design firm founded by:
o Jony Ive
o Marc Newson
·
Ferrari
plans to sell Luce for around €550,000 in Italy.
·
U.S.
pricing has not yet been finalized.
·
Ferrari
will begin officially taking customer orders this week.
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A
major question facing Ferrari is whether wealthy buyers will embrace:
o An all-electric Ferrari
o A model without the traditional Ferrari
engine sound and styling
·
Ferrari
enthusiasts have long associated the brand with:
o High-revving combustion engines
o Distinctive engine acoustics
o Lightweight performance
·
Ferrari
engineers installed an accelerometer system that captures and amplifies the
mechanical sounds of the vehicle’s moving parts.
·
The
system attempts to recreate an emotional driving experience similar to
traditional Ferrari models.
·
Analysts
remain uncertain whether Ferrari purists will accept the artificial sound
profile.
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Ferrari
shares fell about 6% in Milan trading following the unveiling.
·
Investors
appear cautious about:
o Demand for luxury EVs
o Ferrari’s large investment in
electrification
o Broader weakness in the premium EV market
·
Ferrari
Chairman John Elkann played a key role in initiating the collaboration with LoveFrom.
·
CEO
Benedetto Vigna described Luce as a “leapfrog moment” for Ferrari and defended
the company’s EV strategy.
·
Vigna
said some customers are interested in Ferrari specifically because it is now
offering an electric model.
·
Ferrari
recently reduced its long-term electrification targets:
o Fully electric vehicles are now expected
to account for 20% of Ferrari’s 2030 lineup
o Earlier target: 40%
·
The
company maintained its goal for hybrids to represent 40% of future production.
Several
luxury automakers have reduced EV expansion plans, including:
·
Mercedes-Benz
·
Porsche
·
Lamborghini
·
Global
automakers have reportedly taken around $70 billion in write-downs linked to
scaled-back EV production plans.
·
Ferrari’s
shares experienced their worst single-day decline after the company issued
weaker growth forecasts in October.
·
Since
then:
o Shares have fallen roughly 28%
o Around $28 billion has been wiped from
Ferrari’s market valuation
·
Luce
represents a major test for whether high-performance luxury EVs can attract
traditional supercar buyers.
·
The
launch also reflects the broader automotive industry dilemma:
o Balancing electrification goals
o Managing investor expectations
o Responding to slowing global EV demand
o Preserving brand identity in the electric
era.
Ferrari
on Monday (25.05.2026) pulled the cover off Luce, its first fully electric car.
The five-seater is one of the biggest gambles in the Italian company’s history,
arriving amid a string of missed targets and expensive promises by luxury carmakers
to go electric.
In
Luce, Ferrari engineers believe that they have developed a sports car capable of
taking turns at high speeds despite being weighed down by more than half a ton of
battery cells and electrical circuitry bolted to the floor pan.
But
will the ultrawealthy spend more than half a million dollars on an all-electric
Ferrari that doesn’t quite have the classic look or distinctive engine roar of a
Ferrari?
“This
has been a major investment from Ferrari’s point of view in a product that, at the
moment, there’s no real certainty as to what the market is for it,” Angus MacKenzie,
international bureau chief for MotorTrend. “They’re nervous,
would be fair to say.”
Investors
appeared wary. Shares in Ferrari fell 6 percent in Milan in early trading on Tuesday.
Car enthusiasts have engaged in a vigorous debate in online forums about the pros
and cons of the design.
The
story of Luce (pronounced loo-CHAY, or “light” in Italian) is uncommon in the roughly
80-year history of Ferrari’s road-car business. The company teamed up with LoveFrom — the agency founded in 2019 by Jony Ive, Apple’s former design chief, and the industrial designer
Marc Newson — to develop Luce’s glass-and-polished-aluminum
frame, which is capable of hitting close to 200 miles per hour.
John
Elkann, Ferrari’s chairman and a scion of the Agnelli family automobile dynasty,
contacted Mr. Ive and LoveFrom
shortly after the design firm opened shop in the hope of collaborating on a project.
Their efforts began five years ago, around the time that Mr. Elkann’s handpicked
new chief executive, Benedetto Vigna, started at Ferrari.
A
physicist who spent decades at the chip maker STMicroelectronics, Mr. Vigna has
become linked to Luce’s fortunes, and Ferrari’s wider push into electrification,
some analysts say. In an interview on Monday, he pushed back on that idea. But he
acknowledged that Luce’s arrival heralded a new era for Ferrari.
“There are some leapfrog moments, and I am fortunate
to be living one at this time,” Mr. Vigna said before an unveiling ceremony on the
outskirts of Rome with some of the company’s V.I.P. customers.
He
was feeling confident that the night would go well. Throughout the day, his phone
was blowing up. “More than 20 messages from clients,” Mr. Vigna said, shaking his
head with a grin while peering down at his smartphone.
“Look,
this is another one,” he said, pulling up a picture someone had sent him. It was
an image of a cherry red sports car with the Ferrari prancing horse logo on the
hood. It was not the Luce, though.
The
level of buzz, he thought, was a good sign. But the real test comes when Ferrari
officially starts taking orders this week for a car that will cost 550,000 euros
in Italy. The U.S. pricing has not been determined yet, he added.
High stakes
The
waiting list for the most-sought-after Ferraris can last years. Analysts are keen
to see if the Luce has a similar appeal. Some would-be customers will probably be
attracted by the car’s zero-emission bona fides.
But
for the die-hard Ferraristi, it will be all about performance.
How will Luce’s unique engineering — row upon row of battery cells lined up between
the front tires and the back ones, and four electric motors, one per tire — perform
at top speed?
There
are design features that may raise eyebrows: The four-wheel-drive Luce has four
doors and ample trunk space, giving it a look of a weekend car for the billionaire
set. The car has a range of roughly 530 kilometers (329
miles) on a full charge — in the rear of the pack of more economical E.V.s.
Ferrari
watchers have long wondered how the company’s engineers would be able to replicate
the signature growl of a revving Ferrari engine in an electric model. The automaker’s
solution was to install an accelerometer, at the center
of the axles; the device captures and amplifies the natural sound and whir of the
car’s moving parts as it accelerates. Whether the purists appreciate the effect
is another question.
There’s
a lot riding on Luce. In October, the company disappointed investors with a lackluster growth forecast. It also downshifted on its electrification
ambitions, 16 months after it had opened a €200 million “e-building” to much fanfare.
Ferrari
now sees 20 percent of its 2030 model lineup being all-electric, compared with the
40 percent E.V. target it struck in 2022. (It left unchanged its plan for hybrids
to make up 40 percent of new cars built.)
The
market for high-end E.V.s has largely stalled, however. Other luxury carmakers —
including Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and Lamborghini — have postponed, scaled back or
abandoned their electrification plans. Caught between President Trump’s tariffs
and a cooling market, global automakers have taken roughly $70 billion in write-downs
as they have rolled back their E.V. production targets.
Many
investors wondered if Ferrari, whose profits had largely defied the woes of the
automotive sector and Mr. Trump’s trade war, had also misjudged the market for E.V.s.
Shares in Ferrari suffered their worst one-day fall on record when the company released
its gloomy growth projection in October. They are down roughly 28 percent since,
wiping roughly $28 billion off the company’s market valuation.
Mr.
Vigna said on Monday that both he and Ferrari were still bullish on the E.V. market.
“Some people are telling me, ‘I will become a client of Ferrari if, and only if,
you deliver to me an electric Ferrari,’” he added.