Luca Cordero di Montezemolo: «If I had to say what I think, I would hurt Ferrari. There is a risk of destroying a myth, I’m very sorry. I hope they remove the horse.” Flavio Briatore: «Everyone asks me about the new Ferrari, yes I’ve seen the Ferrari Luce and it has a great advantage: The Chinese don’t copy this». Carlo Calenda: «an aesthetic and technological insult for those who love Ferrari».
Yet the Ferrari Luce also has some flaws, one might say laughingly.
Presented the day before yesterday to Pope Leo and then to the President of the Republic Mattarella by John Elkann, President of Ferrari, Piero Ferrari, Vice President, and Benedetto Vigna, CEO, the latest creation from Maranello was received by most in an extremely negative way. An example not worthy of the great tradition born under the banner of the Prancing Horse (the one that Montezemolo would like to remove from the bodywork…).
It is the first Ferrari model with fully electric drive and has many revolutionary aspects: it is a 4-door, 5-seater supercar created in collaboration with an external design studio, LoveFrom, founded by Jony Ive, a manager who left Apple (and many, in fact, they noticed an aesthetic reference to the iPhone in the sinuous lines of the Light). It is powered by 4 electric motors, one for each wheel. As powerful as you expect from a Ferrari, it reaches 100 km/h in 2.5 seconds and 200 km/h in less than 7. Top speed? It can push up to 310 km/h. A bolt of lightning. The lowest aerodynamic impact in Ferrari history certainly helps.
Extraordinary work has been done on the sound: being completely electric, the Ferrari Luce certainly does not produce the typical roar of a supercar, something that the super-wealthy Ferrari driver and potential buyer would never want to give up. Having discarded the idea of adding fake digital sounds, the sound comes from the real mechanical noise of engines and gears, captured and amplified through specific accelerometers. The comparison used in Ferrari is that of the electric guitar, where the vibration exists physically and is made audible through amplification and signal processing. Maranello patent.
The list price of the Ferrari Luce is equal to a 50 square meter two-room apartment in the Brera area of Milan, i.e. around 550,000 euros. Other models in production range from around 220,000 euros for the Ferrari Roma to 435,000 for the Ferrari 12Cilindri Coupé version. As with all other car manufacturers, in short, those who want the ecological choice pay for it, in both senses.
The Ferrari Luce seen from three quarters (uff Ferrari press)
Having said all this, the reason for so much criticism of the newcomer seems to be traced back to the design of the bodywork, the element that perhaps deviates the most from tradition, but in this case being revolutionary or at least eccentric does not play in favor, because Those who buy Ferraris want, ardently desire, to be recognized on the street as the lucky owner of a Ferrari. If you move away from the usual style, the risk is that of having only the prancing horse logo as the only recognizable element. A bit cheap for 550,000 euros.
Beyond the aesthetic debate, the concern, if justified, must go to the industrial impact of a product that risks damaging the budgets in Maranello, if indeed the day begins in the morning.
