Ferrari Goes Electric: The Luce Is Here!

After a long buildup, Ferrari has finally taken the wraps off its most controversial model ever, the Luce EV. And it turns out, the new Ferrari’s appearance is at least as much of a departure as its powertrain.

It Looks Different

Ferrari turned to the outside design firm LoveFrom, led by product-design superstars Jony Ive and Marc Newson, to shape the Luce’s exterior as well as the interior. With a dedicated EV architecture that allowed for a high degree of freedom, the new model’s form factor is unlike that of any other Ferrari.

Ferrari

You might not guess that, at 197.9 inches, the Luce stretches two inches longer than the Purosangue, and at 60.8 inches high, it sits about two inches lower. The cabin is set rather far forward within the all-aluminum body. The doors are center-opening, and there’s a liftgate at the rear. The headlights and taillights illuminate from dark panels, and the windshield wipers park in the upright position against the A-pillars.

Ferrari

Aerodynamics were paramount, and the Luce is claimed to have a drag coefficient lower than any prior roadgoing Ferrari. Key elements include tunnel-like front and rear spoilers and active grille shutters for the three heat exchangers.

Style-Setting Cabin

The interior, we predict, will be far less divisive, and we love the merging of the physical and the digital. Overall volume is similar to that of the Purosangue, but without a central tunnel and rear transaxles, the Luce seats five—a Ferrari first. Under the rear liftgate is the largest trunk ever in a Ferrari.

Notably, the cabin is less of a tech overload than one might expect. The displays are OLED. The instrument cluster’s three metal-ringed dials are actually digital displays set within another digital display. The center dial displays speed and battery charge level; in place of a tachometer, the left dial shows available power and regen level; the right dial is configurable. The gauge display moves with the steering column.

A modestly sized central touchscreen also incorporates physical switches, and it can pivot toward the driver or the front passenger. There’s another screen with a similar setup at the back of the center console, for rear-seat passengers.

The steering wheel ditches the frustrating touchpads used on the Purosangue in favor of real switchgear. That includes two manettino dials, a standard five-position unit, and an e-manettino dial that controls the powertrain. The wheel is flanked by two large paddles that control regen and maximum torque output.

Proprietary e-Motors

Inserting the Ferrari logo key fob into its dock in the center console powers up the Luce. The four synchronous, permanent-magnet electric motors are heavily rear-biased, with the front pair making 282 horsepower, while the rear two pump out 831 horsepower. Total output is not a direct sum at 1035 horsepower, but it still exceeds that of any other roadgoing Ferrari.

Despite a stated curb weight of 4982 pounds, Ferrari says, the Luce will reach 62 mph in 2.5 seconds and 124 mph in 6.8 seconds. Top speed is a claimed 193 mph. There is a launch mode that’s activated via a pull handle located in the overhead console. In addition to optimizing the traction-control system, it provides extra torque boost and unlocks an additional 54 horsepower.

Ferrari

More on how those steering-wheel paddles affect the proceedings: The left paddle selects among five levels of regen, while the right paddle increases available torque in five steps—an attempt to emulate the involvement of driver-actuated gearchanges. The idea is that the driver will hit the left paddle to increase regen when entering a curve, same as they would downshift to get engine braking. Then, when accelerating out of a corner, they’d use the right paddle to feed in more torque. A “torque meter” above the speedometer serves the function of Ferrari’s traditional upshift-indicator lights, signaling the driver the optimal moment to “upshift” via the paddle to increase torque flow.

Ferrari

Sound On

So, the Luce will be Ferrari quick, but what about the sound? Gianmaria Fulgenzi, chief product development officer, said, “The sound has been one of the biggest challenges with this car.” Ferrari could have programmed the Luce to play a soundtrack from one of its screaming V-12s, but the company took a different approach. It wanted the sound the driver hears to be an outgrowth of the mechanical noise the car is actually making, so it developed (and patented) a system that captures sound from inside the rear axle and processes it. The amplification is based on the mode selected via the e-manettino, with “Perfo” having the maximum aural feedback, “Tour” having a midlevel soundscape, and “Range” being the quietest mode. No matter the setting, the car also projects the sound externally.

What’s Underneath

The motors are fed by a 122-kWh (gross) battery pack, which is a structural element of the chassis. Like the electric motors, the battery is designed and manufactured by Ferrari. The Luce features an 800-volt architecture and charges at up to 350 kW. Ferrari is estimating the car’s range at 330 miles, by the European WLTP standard, which would translate to around 280 miles via our EPA methodology.

The chassis features four-wheel steering and an active suspension system said to be derived from that in the F80, with adaptive dampers that are an evolution of the units in the Purosangue and F80. The Luce offers full torque vectoring across the front and rear axles, and the brake rotors are 15.4 inches in diameter at the front and 14.6 inches at the rear. The staggered-size wheels, 23 x 9.5 inches up front and 24 x 11.0 inches at the rear, are the largest ever fitted to a roadgoing Ferrari and are available in two styles, a traditional five-spoke design and an aero-optimized turbine look that reduces drag by 5 percent.

Here It Comes

The car goes on sale in Europe later this year, priced at around 550,000 euros. That’s the equivalent of about $640,000, but the Luce won’t arrive in the States until the second quarter of 2027, and U.S. pricing hasn’t been released.

The slow drip of news leading up to this moment was perhaps calculated to get people used to the idea of an electric Ferrari. And the company clearly dove headfirst into the project.

Will the unique tech applications successfully give a battery-powered Ferrari the emotion that is at the core of its brand values? Will the lofty price convey an air of desirability for this new kind of Ferrari?

The answers are uncertain. Even in today’s superheated market for ultra-high-end exotics, demand for electrics appears uncertain at best. Lamborghini recently canceled its planned EV, with CEO Stephan Winklemann saying buyer interest was “close to zero.” McLaren CEO Nick Collins has been noncommittal to the prospect, and Aston Martin CEO Adrian Hallmark has pushed the debut of his brand’s EV from 2027 to 2030.

Ferrari executive chairman John Elkann said, “We are expanding what Ferrari can be, not losing what Ferrari is.” We shall see whether the Ferraristi agree.

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Joe Lorio has been obsessed with cars since his Matchbox days, and he got his first subscription to Car and Driver at age 11. Joe started his career at Automobile Magazine under David E. Davis Jr., and his work has also appeared on websites including Amazon Autos, Autoblog, AutoTrader, Hagerty, Hemmings, KBB, and TrueCar.