(Bloomberg) — Ferrari NV shares fell almost 8% after critics panned the look of its first fully electric vehicle, a setback for the Italian super-car maker’s controversial push into EVs.
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The unveiling of the €550,000 ($640,000) Ferrari Luce drew largely negative reactions from industry analysts and social media influencers alike, who compared the four-door, five seater’s design to mass-market EVs. For the Luce, Ferrari moved away from the style associated with design chief Flavio Manzoni and tapped Apple Inc.’s former head of design, Jony Ive, to shape the vehicle.
The car looks like a “mix between a Honda Accord EV and Tesla 3,” Pierre-Olivier Essig, head of research at AIR Capital wrote in a note. “We are lost in translation with Ferrari’s new strategy.”
The launch also comes as demand for high-end electric vehicles has become harder to predict and some rivals like Lamborghini and Porsche AG have slowed their electrification plans, citing a lack of buying interest.
The share price plunge followed a presentation in Rome that marked the final stage of a three-step reveal of the EV that began last year with the car’s core technology and later showed its interior.
After falling as much as 7.8% in early Milan trading, the stock was 6.4% lower at 1:37 p.m., the steepest decline since October. The company is valued at €53 billion.
While the car’s design disappointed many, driving it may still yield different views. The Luce delivers the equivalent of just over 1,000 horsepower and reaches 100 kilometers per hour (62 mph) in 2.5 seconds, quicker than Ferrari’s V12-powered Purosangue SUV. It has a top speed of more than 310 kph.
“Ferrari has not embarked on this blindly and we know that much curiosity has been generated by the Luce,” Bernstein analysts led by Stephen Reitman wrote in a note. He expects there are enough Ferrari customers and collectors, new and old, “to ensure that Luce firmly establishes its position within Ferrari’s range.”
Still, the early reaction adds to missteps by Ferrari, which delivered long-term targets last year that disappointed investors and raised questions over how it will balance electric technology with the combustion-engine models that remain central to its brand. Ferrari’s 2030 plan cut the expected share of fully electric cars in half to 20% of the lineup, while targeting twice that level of fuel-burning models.
Test Case
Developed with Ive and Marc Newson at LoveFrom, the creative collective founded by the former Apple design chief who was behind the IPhone an Apple Mac, the Luce’s smooth surfaces and reduced detailing reflect Ive’s influence and mark a departure from Ferrari’s traditionally muscular styling.
It’s a major test case: Ferrari has to show that an electric car can fit its model of limited supply, high pricing and emotional appeal, while expanding the range beyond traditional two-seat and four-seat sports cars. The pricing of the vehicle suggests Chief Executive Officer Benedetto Vigna has no intention of sacrificing the brand’s exclusivity to boost volumes.
The car will show whether the Italian carmaker’s formula works without the roar of an internal combustion engine, particularly with EV residual values still a concern among rich buyers seeking supercars that will hold or even increase their value over time.
Lamborghini has delayed its first EV, highlighting how hard it has become for luxury-car makers to persuade customers to part with the noise and physicality of combustion engines. Mate Rimac, the founder of Rimac Group, last year said demand for high-end hypercars with electric powertrains stood at about 10 vehicles annually.
Ferrari has repeatedly said it will continue to offer clients a choice across internal combustion, hybrid and electric powertrains. Its strategy remains focused on mix, personalization and disciplined allocation rather than selling more cars.
That discipline is central to Ferrari’s model. Like successful luxury peers such as Hermes International SCA and Rolex SA, the company has long relied on waiting lists and carefully managed supply to protect exclusivity. Scarcity is not a side effect of the business, but a tool Ferrari uses to support demand and pricing.
Its model has insulated Ferrari from the challenges facing higher-volume European carmakers, which are struggling to compete with an influx of cheaper Chinese EVs. The Italian company has the biggest market value of any European automaker, even though it produces fewer than 14,000 cars a year — far below Volkswagen AG’s total of nearly 9 million. Still, its shares have fallen 31% over the past 12 months amid jitters about the strength of global demand for luxury products.
Ferrari has framed Luce not as a concession to rules or rivals, but as an attempt to prove that electric technology can deliver the performance and character the brand’s devotees demand. The company’s message is that electrification should provide fresh design and driving possibilities, rather than simply replace an engine with a battery.
“Ferrari Luce is not a response to change,” Executive Chairman John Elkann told journalists during a presentation Sunday. “It is a deliberate decision to lead what comes next.”
Ferrari chose a symbolic setting for the Luce’s reveal: the Vela di Calatrava, the sail-shaped structure designed by the Spanish architect and engineer Santiago Calatrava, in the Tor Vergata district outside Rome.
The backdrop matched the scale of the launch. Ferrari brought more than 200 journalists from around the world to Rome for the unveiling. The carmaker organized two gala dinners for Monday and Tuesday, with 800 customers at each event, the company said. Buyers could begin placing orders starting Monday.
Style Shift
The unusual use of glass is one of the Luce’s defining features. Ferrari described it as a “glass house,” a shell-like form that extends below the belt line to the edges of the car. Luce is smoother, but also more familiar: its glassy, pared-back shape sits closer to the styles now becoming common for EVs.
That puts more pressure on the driving experience. For all the technology Ferrari has packed into the Luce, it makes a somewhat understated first impression. Ferrari is betting that the car’s agility, sound and response on the road will do what the design alone may not: make a five-seat electric car feel unmistakably like a Ferrari.
“We had to start from Ferrari, not from electric technology,” Vigna said. “We had to start from the human dimension.”
The Luce is powered by four electric motors, one for each wheel, and a high-voltage battery pack designed and built in Maranello, Ferrari’s home town.
The electric platform allowed Ferrari to fit in five seats for the first time, something not possible with its traditional transaxle configuration, where a front-mid engine is paired with a rear gearbox. The Luce will also have a trunk of 600 liters, or 21 cubic feet, potentially enough space for two golf bags or three big suitcases.
The car’s format is closer to high-performance electric GTs such as Porsche’s Taycan than to two-seat electric hypercars, though Ferrari’s luxury positioning and scarcity model make the comparison imperfect. Most Taycan versions cost far less than the Luce’s expected price.
Sound is another key challenge. Ferrari said it spent five years and 40,000 kilometers of track testing to develop the car’s acoustic character. Instead of synthetically mimicking the roar of a combustion engine, the company captures the hum of the electric motors through a sensor on the rear axle, then processes and amplifies the sound.
That approach is designed to address one of the main doubts around any electric Ferrari: whether a brand historically defined by its growling motors can preserve an emotional connection without the sound of a combustion engine.
–With assistance from Isolde MacDonogh, Blaise Robinson and Chiara Albanese.
(Updates with analyst comment in eighths paragraph)
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