The static reveal of a new car usually goes something as follows: After agreeing to an embargo, bleary-eyed journalists board a jet, arrive at a place far from home, get in a van, see what they’re meant to see, take some photos or video, have a bite to eat, and then pretty much turn around and go home. The very definition of business travel, this is jet-setting in such a non-tourist way that it simply becomes part of the routine. However, reports suggest that the debut of the Ferrari Luce wasn’t quite routine. Reading between the lines, it seems that Ferrari was nervous.
First off, there’s who was invited. On Tuesday, veteran journalist Chris Harris (who has historically had a bumpy relationship with Ferrari) recently recorded an “emergency podcast” in which he talked about the Luce with friends. Beyond the initial reactions, Harris said Ferrari, like any automaker holding a press event, had a certain vetting process when it came to the Luce:
As a journalist, I can tell you [that] you had to meet certain criteria to be invited for that unveiling. I’m proud to say I didn’t meet them. I was telephoned and asked how positive I was about electric cars and I said “Not very,” and the invite was not forthcoming.
[Ed Note: It’s common for Automakers to invite journalists they trust and whom they think will like their product. While they don’t usually ask the journalist point-blank what they think of a certain type of car, they definitely figure out it out by reading journalists’ stories. In some ways, asking point blank could be seen as better. -DT]
It goes without saying that automakers control who’s invited to press launches, and being choosy is within their right. They’re spending enormous sums to fly media in, so they get to pick who’s invited.
A brief look around the sphere at who was and wasn’t invited to Luce is telling. Harris, one of Britain’s most accomplished motoring journalists who has been known to give controversial models like the Jaguar Type 01 a fair shake upon experiencing them, was not invited. Meanwhile, technology influencers reportedly received their own junket wave including time at Alfa Romeo’s Balocco Proving Ground.
So what about the experience of those who did attend the unveiling? While this is the account of one individual, Tim Burton of Shmee150 gave an eye-opening look into just how Ferrari dealt with things.
As we left our hotel, our phones got fully stickered, our laptops got stickered, everything got completely covered up. Then, on arrival at the venue, as we entered the car park, same again, checking everything. Then at the door, again the same to go inside, then at the entrance to the hall, exactly the same again. So, the most protective event—despite this being 24 hours before the reveal—that I’ve ever been to in my life.
Stickers over cameras isn’t unprecedented, but it’s clear Ferrari’s security was tight.
On top of that, according to Burton, the embargo that states that every outlet must hold reporting until a certain time to give everyone a fair chance to write their stories, process their photos, and edit their videos came with a rather shocking clause.
This is probably gonna be the most controversial part of this video and possibly get me in a little bit of trouble, but I think it’s important to be honest with you because it will also make quite a bit of sense as to what you’ve seen out there. For example, take Top Gear’s video by Jason. Great video, but the top comment basically says ‘journalists have become PR representatives for automotive companies’. And that’s because Ferrari played this very cleverly in the way they did this event. I felt really uncomfortable with it for various reasons, and I’ve been shooting first look videos like this for many years and done a lot of them, but there was something quite unique about this one in particular that I have never had to do before and that’s in connection with the embargo.
So it’s very normal when you get to see something in advance of its public preview that you sign a contract effectively stating that you won’t share or publish or leak any imagery or anything about the car until a certain date and time when it’s due to be released, and that’s completely normal and—I think—totally, totally fine. In the case of this one, though, not only was it that, but you also had to agree to pay €600,000 in damages if you were responsible for a leak. Now for any publication, that’s not small change, and that’s not something I have ever had to do before.
[Ed Note: Embargo agreements are serious and often threatening. Here you can see a Kia agreement that I signed; it’s written in legalese and clearly quite serious:
And here is Scout threatening to pursue legal action (which could include going after “damages” i.e. money) if I break the embargo:
To spell out a dollar figure like $699,000, though, seems a bit much. This may be how Ferrari does things, but to some this paints a picture of nervousness around the Luce reveal. -DT]
At current exchange rates, €600,000 is about $699,000, an utterly ruinous sum for many outlets. While it’s understandable not wanting anything to leak, in all my years of being a car journalist, I’ve never been asked to sign for a responsibility over a specific, explicitly stated monetary amount of damages associated with a leak. Not once. What’s more, threatening such damages over a leak could potentially be seen as more intimidating than useful due to how the media was actually captured. As Burton went on to state:
Now that’s one thing and you know, for myself, that’s kind of like right, y’know, accept that, take that seriously, but that was then combined with this exceptionally peculiar filming setup and in particular, that we had to use their camera operators, their camera equipment, and they kept all the footage to share with us only a couple hours before the embargo dropped. Now, in my opinion, you can’t have both of those. If there’s going to be a massive fine, then let you get the right content, let you shoot it correctly, let you get the right messaging and explain the car. If you’re going to be leaving the memory stick with them, then you can’t leak it anyway because they’ve got it. You’ve not done anything wrong. This was a completely unique scenario.
Hang on: If Ferrari or its contractors were responsible for visual media capture and this report of only being given assets hours before the embargo was up is accurate, the likelihood of a leak is very low. Especially with video, because most of that time will simply be eaten by grading footage and editing shots into a coherent narrative that fits the voice of each outlet. It’s understandable that Ferrari wanted to keep a lid on the Luce, but not only is withholding assets for such a time likely to compromise quality of visual coverage, there are some potential issues should an automaker collect and hold onto such pieces of media prior to publication.
I’ve been doing this for seven years and not once has an automaker asked to see parts of a story before it goes live. [Ed note: I’ve definitely been asked before under specific circumstances, but I usually decline. The only exception I can remember revolved around unique details that both sides wanted to get absolutely correct. – MH] There’s a certain unspoken trust here, not just for fairness but also for the editorial independence of any coverage. Ferrari reportedly having a hand in all audiovisual asset capture raises questions about potential control of reception. If coverage is negative, would the footage still be sent outlets’ way intact? Would that potential fear cause certain members of the media to be a bit less outspoken than usual? In a way, Harris summed it up best:
I think, judge a car company’s confidence by the way it manages car launches. The first time I drove a Porsche 918 that was finished, it was left in a garage with a key. There was no one there with it, they just said go off. They knew they’d made something brilliant. Same with great cars. If you have to show the interior then the exterior, then you have to do seven bleed-out launches, you know you’re dealing with a company that’s really having to manage things.
Judging by these reports, Ferrari seems to have had a serious grip on the Luce debut, and that begs several questions regarding trust in the journalistic process, and the automaker’s own confidence about the car in question. Obviously, the only way through this is to talk about it, so I’ve reached out to Ferrari and will update you as soon as I hear more.
Top graphic images: Ferrari; iOS
Someone else here wrote this looks like a ladies personal pleasure device, which from the exterior seems like an apt description.
It is not pushing the envelope from an engineering perspective
It is not beautiful
The interior instruments designed by Ive I think are really interesting, however that seems to be the only thing interesting in a positive way about this vehicle.
Koenigsegg proved a 4 seater supercar can be made to look like a supercar with the Gemera
The 3 most reasonable explanations for the exterior design…
1. Designer / design team did it out of spite for this assignment
2. Some in leadership wanted to ‘prove’ ev Ferrari couldn’t succeed (by sales)
3. New (gastly) design trend that all that matters is for your design to ‘stand out’ regardless of how ugly others may think it to be, they will remember it…
Imagine being the exterior designer or on the exterior design team and including this abomination in your work portfolio…
Nothing to do with the Ferrari Luce per se, but just the way this reveal was done sounds worse than when I spent a month as a TV news photographer touring life in Russia in 1986. We had a translator/minder with us as we made our way all around the country, always flying back to Moscow before heading off to another part of the country. It was the ultimate spoke and hub arrangement back then.
Ironically, the only hassle was when we gave our documents to our minder Andre, to add a stop to Soviet Georgia to profile some of the storied centenarians who live there, and we saw a line of people queued up out the door and around the block of what turned out to be a wine store.
Through the viewfinder of my camera, I saw a guy in the line looking at me, and I said to Maragaret, the main female anchor of our station, “I think we’re in trouble.” Five minutes later, we were being hustled down the street by four mili-men to essentially, a police precinct station. Without documents. With little command of Russian besides please and thank you.
I surreptitiously coughed to cover the clunking of the tape deck as I started and stopped recording while in detention. And then ejecting that tape and putting a fresh blank tape in, in case they wanted to confiscate it.
Thirty minutes later, after a very heated conversation between the guy who turned us in and the precinct captain (for lack of a better label), we got kicked loose with no more than a no-no finger wag from the captain.
We eventually found our minder, with our amended travel documents, and he asked where we had been. We didn’t tell him.
And that shade of blue didn’t do the Luce any favors.
I’ve complained about the exterior design on this already too much, but I’ve seen a lot of defenders saying that they it looks fine and EVs don’t have to look like ICE cars. I agree. I think the Lucid Air looks amazing as an EV GT sedan. This does not (except the interior, I still love that).
It looks like a refrigerator with wheels.
Ferrari should be nervous. This car is a design catastrophe.
Well, after this post we can rest assured that Autopian will be asked to join a Ferrari reveal any soon.
Fortunately, they are welcome in more interesting places.
The journalists should just post about how Ferrari will launch a new EV, and they won’t let journalists speak or write freely about it. Full stop. Just don’t go.
If you have to threaten journalists, and then completely control every image and the narrative, they become PR shills even if it’s against their will with the media company pushing for coverage.
I read a great article about how Corporations are run as dictatorships. They control what workers wear, say, when and how they work, they watch their moves, what they type, how long they take breaks, when they can take breaks. Try to push back and get fired. No judge, no jury, no chance to state your case to someone who might care. Total control. Workers work harder and harder to make the corporation profit, while doing it for less and less pay and benefits.
This system needs to be set on fire. It should be stakeholder profits and benefits, not shareholder. The end user should benefit most and first.
As long as someone is willing to work under the conditions, they will not change.
The only real check on this is workers organizing, which gets more difficult each year. I wouldn’t be surprised if a federal law has snuck onto the books in the past two years or so that makes it illegal for strikers to yell at corporate goons hired to break a strike and allows for a violent response.
Ferrari is gross. I wouldn’t mind if they stayed in their own corner with some rich losers who want their very protected legacy brand and all.
But, you know. They’ve still got to bring in a parade of “influencers” to uncritically spread their glory into the popular consciousness. I guess they don’t “need” to play nice with journalists at all anymore.
Ferrari has always been the most overrated brand, ever. Don’t get the hype, and don’t get the current hate. But to be fair, I simply don’t get the hype around italian cars at all. They simply suck, that’s it.
I don’t like Shmeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee’s videos, but in one of my past jobs, I had to work together with him. They were shooting some kind of strange Video for a Oil company within the testing facilities I was responsible for. We spent 3 days together, and they also invited me for dinner. He seems like an okay guy, at least off camera.
I was one of the millions of kids that had a Testarossa poster on my wall. And then I got a ride in one. Bubble burst. What an absolute piece of garbage. It was noisy (ok, I get that), super uncomfortable and this is the part that I remember distinctly- my back was warm from the engine. Better left as a fantasy poster…
I had a similar poster, but all I remember about it now is the girl on the hood.
None of this distracts from the fact that this Ferrari looks like a broken female pleasure toy.
If you think of Ferrari as a car company, then I guess this all seems bad. But the modern Ferrari company is a luxury brand that also happens to sell cars. They generate more revenue from branded products and licensing than they do from selling cars and have for several years. A few dozen TechBros and
collectorsinvestors will pick these up to park and hold onto and never drive.To me it looks like sedan sibling to the Honda 0 α prototype, which would be fine if this were a Honda.
The way Ferrari deals with media and deciding who is allowed to buy their cars is ridiculous. I wouldn’t mind if Ferrari went out of business. There are better cars out there, anyway. Ferrari’s practices were so frustrating that Ferruccio Lamborghini decided to start his own car company.
With a regular consumer product, a boycott could have an effect, but we’re talking about ultra expensive cars bought by very rich people who probably couldn’t care less about a company being crappy to the media and certain customers.
These products are now a result of executives who may think they know Ferrari and their heritage, sitting around in a meeting room trying to think of new ways to “expand”.
Once one person loses the plot and they’re given too much voice, the rest of the flock follows. It’s one mistake (Purosangue) over another until you have the Ferrari Luce.
From an enthusiast perspective, it may be a mistake. From a business perspective on Ferrari’s end, it’s been a banger.
I can’t view the article because Motor1 detected my Adblock, but I’m guessing they’ve seen a large number of sales.
The thing with making an SUV is that it factually destroys your brand equity even if you make more money in the short term. Today they are Ferrari, a historical racing team with multiple championships in Formula 1, and they make supercars.
Tomorrow, it may be like Porsche, an SUV and EV brand that happens to sell a rear-engine sports car.
Sergio Marchionne was not a dumb businessman and I trust there’s a good reason why he was always opposed to Ferrari making an SUV.
Nevertheless, there’s also merit in staying profitable as is and continuing to make supercars while ignoring SUVs. There are valuable lessons to be learned from luxury bicycle brands like Pinarello and Colnago not making city commuter e-bikes, or Ducati not making 125cc scooters.
Yes, it’s their third best seller, but since it’s considerably more expensive then the 296 and the Roma it’s probably their #1 source of revenue.
Given all of the other crap Ferrari likes to pull (you have to buy cheap Ferraris before you can buy the expensive ones, fanatical control over what colors you can paint it, can’t say anything negative on social media, etc) I think their identity as a race team rather than a snooty club for rich bozos has been dead a while. Letting the trophy spouse toodle around in an SUV is perfectly on brand for modern Ferrari.
Isn’t Ferrari notoriously ridiculous about press for their cars? I seem to remember C&D having a hell of a time getting an F50 owner to let them test their car (the owners would agree, then change their minds a few days later after a “conversation” with the factory). I think Chris Harris was blacklisted for a couple years over something as well.
I think it was Glickenhaus who told the factory to F-off and let C/D test his car.
I think Harris’s blacklisting was for his 2011 “How Ferrari Spins” article on the other site. I guess he’s at least somewhat back in their good graces if they bothered to even ask him.
I still struggle with their logic on this one.
Ferrari needed a larger market car to help keep the lights on, as not even the prancing horse can keep the lights on with sports cars alone.
So the solution was to make the most “An Car” EV of all time, and then price it like one of their sports cars.
I argue that they took the totally wrong approach by sticking with a car. But even this thing likely could’ve succeeded if it was under 150k. (I feel dropping below 6 figures would “taint” the brand in their eyes)
I actually kind of like it. I think it’s probably the kiddie pool blue colour that people are having a hard time with.
Best looking Ferrari in the past 15 years.
Unfortunately true.
Ditto, I really dig the looks. However, I think they should have created a spin-off electric brand rather than force the Ferrari logo on it. It’s not a Ferrari but it’s made by Ferrari.
I’m a little disappointed in the 0-60 and top speed specs. EVs really do prove how easy it is to achieve super car performance through electrification. My guess is the main appeal of this vehicle will be the exclusivity of ownership.
I bet the Ferrari marketing team is thanking their lucky stars that Mercedes reveled their hideous GT a few days ago, tempering the whiplash reactions a bit. I think all these high end automakers are cooked if this is the best they can do, and clearly they even know it based on the embargo fees.
I have got to admit, after seeing this thing, I am liking the Merc a lot more. It looks a lot better than this boring appliance.
Oh god, picking between the two of these is a total Sophie’s Choice.
I really wish Ferrari used a T-shaped battery pack so it wouldn’t be so awkwardly proportioned and made it a sedan based on the Roma, similar to these renders by Sugar Design.
Hell, even the current exterior graphics would have worked in a sport sedan with a T-shaped battery pack, similar to these other renders by Sugar Design.
Or if Ferrari really just wanted a compliance car, they could’ve stuck a Ferrari badge on a Rimac Nevera/Pininfarina Battista and called it a day.
Basically anything else would’ve been better than what they actually released and I can’t tell if it’s malicious compliance or incompetence at this point.
At least the interior is nice and there will be a fun article by Adrian to look forward to…
“At current exchange rates, €600,000 is about $699,000, an utterly ruinous sum for many outlets”
Something something blood, something stone.
Username on point.
I think you have me confused with Poor Bastard or perhaps Broke Bastard.
No worries, it’s an easy mistake. The Bastard lineage reaches far and wide.
Pretty sure this car is meant for The Dumb Bastard branch.
Every gene pool has it’s shallow end.