Just a couple of days ago, I had an opportunity to get a close-up look at Ferrari’s controversial new EV, the Luce. I realize that this may be the most controversial Ferrari in quite some time, and it sure seems like most of the response to the car is pretty negative. Maybe more than most.
My initial reactions upon seeing pictures of the Luce weren’t great, if I’m honest, so I was eager to give the car a fair shake in person. I saw it. That didn’t help.
Now, I realize that the Luce is a very fast and advanced EV, allegedly capable of going from 0-60 in about 2.5 seconds, with four motors pumping out 1,006 more horsepower than my Citroën 2CV, and the thing has rear-wheel steering and big ceramic disc brakes and an interior designed by ex-Apple designer Jonathan Ive and all sorts of exciting things, but the fact that it just doesn’t feel like a Ferrari kind of makes it all moot.
There’s the one I saw. That matte gray color isn’t really doing it any favors, because you could absolutely stick a KIA badge on there and lose it in a Target parking lot with cavalier ease.
Plus, these things cost over $600,000 – and that’s a bargain compared to the one that went for $40 million at auction, baffling everyone. I know this for a fact, because I actually talked to some people who were there, and, for the most part, they were indeed baffled:
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Well, most of them were baffled; there are charity-related reasons that make more sense, and, let’s be honest, getting in good with Ferrari the family/company, but overall, I think it’s safe to say that people don’t seem to have any desire for this car. And isn’t desire something that should be at the core of what a Ferrari is?
And, sure, Ferrari as a company has proven to be, to put it charitably, a pack of [redacted by editor], filing lawsuits against high-profile owners who commit such heinous crimes as, let’s see, painting a car they own the way they want to paint it.
Anyway, as bloodless and pointless as this thing feels in person, part of me wants to at least try to find the upside here; we’re vehemently pro-car here, after all, and if I decide to pick one of these up for $7500 in 2046 on TikTok Marketplace I want to at least feel a little good about my decision.
So with that in mind, I’m going to try to come up with ten positive statements about the look/feel of the Luce. I haven’t driven it yet, so I can’t comment on that, but I think I can at least try and find the chrome lining in this grim stormcloud of a car.
Here we go:
- There seems to be enough ground clearance so that driving over a speed bump at 15 mph won’t result in a repair bill large enough to rent a San Francisco apartment for six months, unlike most Ferraris.
- It’s a great object lesson for kids to understand complex concepts like disappointment and ennui
- If you wreck it, it’ll be pretty easy to get over it
- It’s perfect for wealthy introverts who always wanted to drive a Ferrari but hate attention
- Ideal getaway car for heists since it’s fast as hell and eyewitnesses will think it’s a Hyundai IONIQ something or maybe a Dodge Charger Daytona if they saw it from the front
- The design lets you fit in with all the cool kids in their Nissan Leafs. I realize this is similar to 5.
- At 21 cubic feet, it has the largest trunk ever in a Ferrari, the main reason that people buy Ferraris
- I forget what 8 was for
- The wiper blades look pretty easy to change, sitting there on those A-pillars
- The dashboard is kinda cool, with lots of physical buttons, but those turn signal buttons make me want to scream:
See? Lots of positives to this thing!
[Ed Note: My BMW i3S is more technologically advanced than this Ferrari. Almost looks as good, too! -DT]
It’s hardly the soul-crushing anonymous lump of suppository-shaped EV that cruel people are saying it is! Suppositories are actually way more sleek looking, after all.
From the picture in the thumbnail it looks like a malformed version of the Charger Daytona, an already somewhat goofy looking car.
I don’t care. Do you?
IDK, it’s not a bad looking CUV. It doesn’t live up to its price, but what Ferrari does? If price were no consideration I think I’d rather look at this than a lot of other electric super-crossovers. The AMG GT SUV is heinous, this doesn’t even come close to that.
The nice thing I’ll say: the steering wheel is delightfully thin on this car. I hope that makes a comeback.
So this thing is basically like Mark Zuckerburg’s $400 designer t-shirts? Both made by Italian designers, both look vaguely like something normal people would own, both are wildly overpriced so the owner can still feel superior to the rabble?
Disagree. Looks better than the panty blue it was first shown. Still looks generic and dull.
That turn signal buttons… I don’t believe a stalk would ruin the design that much, but who am I to question Jon Ive? But could be worse, they could have decide to use a voice command for that.
I’ve driven a Ferrari F458 which also has the stupid steering wheel mounted turn signals.
Do you know how you indicate your intention to exit a roundabout? You can’t. You’ll never find the stupid button without taking your eyes off the road.
It’s a control that I need to use with the steering wheel turned, it should never be on the wheel.
The owner of the one I’ve driven has just given up indicating.
Clearly the 458 didn’t replace a BMW
11 The rounded off plastic Fisher Price version for kids who are still a little too young for Legos will look just like the real thing.
Reminds me of the time I started rewatching “Rise of Skywalker” and attempted to say only positive things about it. I didn’t get far.
I personally don’t hate its looks, but I’m neither an automotive design expert nor a potential Ferrari buyer, so you can safely ignore me.
It’s a great object lesson for kids to understand complex concepts like disappointment and ennui: That pretty much sums it up.
My apologies for those of you who like it, but this is just so uking fugly…
If Ferrari took the SC01 and marked it up to 300K USD I think the world would go nuts for it. Use some leather and wood on the inside and keep the powertrain intact
#11; It won’t outshine your prancing moose Volvo.
I’m not sure if you could pass it off as a Kia. Styling on the current Kia range is pretty brutalist with lots of angles. I don’t mind the look of it, but not as a Ferrari.
I like the interior of the Luce personally. They should keep Jony employed to fix all Ferrari interiors, and then re-engage Pininfarina to do the exteriors.
Counterpoint: Ive should be forced to work at a fast food restaurant and be faced with looking at one of the Pininfarina-designed drink dispensers so he can understand fresh and functional industrial design that isn’t stolen from Dieter Rams’ Braun days.
Yeah, but have you seen the interior on something like a 12Cilindri? It’s like they wanted to have the main dashboard as a common part for LHD and RHD markets.
I grant you that, but simplistic bad design after overwrought bad design doesn’t make the bad design itself less bad.
I think the 12c’s dashboard design was inspired by the Ford Mustang’s, which for decades used the twin binnacle look for its interiors.
(while looking at the rear shot picture)
Look I know it’s Italian and will forever have Italian build quality, but for $600K+ I would expect the trunk hatch to be aligned with the rest of the rear body panels.
This was designed by the same
geniusmoronic fool who didn’t bother to properly design antenna access on the fourth generation of his employer’s flagship cellular phone.I’m shocked there’s not more of that kind of mismatch.
Maybe I’m just holding my $600K+ supercar wrong
The Luce might look better with a bump case on it, actually. Then again, adding cladding might be too Pontiac…
What the guy said in the video is breaking my brain: people are buying stuff like this because they have bought All the Things that there’s nothing left to buy, and they also need the tax write off because having more money than you know what to do with is still not enough money.
Yuuuuup. Tax the rich into non-existence.
1. I don’t own one
2. My neighbor doesn’t own one
3. Family across the street doesn’t own one
4. If I see one in traffic I probably won’t recognize it
5. If I see one at the charging station I won’t recognize it
6. First sleeper Ferrari
7. If you get pulled over in one, the LEO won’t drag the process out to prolong the experience of seeing it and being seen with it
8. Vallet parking won’t put it up front on a street I drive by on
9. It won’t howl like a flock of angry demons in a tunnel fooling me into looking at it
10. If someone jumps in one and starts it the sound won’t make my head whip to leer
Pretty sure that’s a Lambo, dude
Number 11) Now that the new Mitsubishi Eclipse cross is out it’s no longer the worst looking Leaf derivative
Forgot to capitalize Cavalier
Wow. That is a truly unfortunate looking vehicle. The fact that someone paid 40 million for the first one is insane.
I just can’t add it up. You’d be better off waiting for the bus, possibly getting a blister in the sun. Too late though, that 40 mil is gone daddy gone.
D M remembers what 8 is for.
A++ Torch-ing. Also love the Violent Femmes ref.
I think you’ve got this right – the car may be a coherent package, it may be well designed, it may fit the brief, but it’s not a Ferrari. My pulse is not up. If it had an Apple logo on the back, it’d be perfect, but it doesn’t.
Just searched for the word femmes after i saw that list,
I hope you know this will go down on your permanent record!
Couple of notes:
– I’ve owned an Alfa Milano, Alfa 164, Alfetta, GTV6 and I seriously dig the looks of this
– the apple design connection is bizarre, feels wrong, and is very appealing
-The robins egg blue is cool
-why do so few people understand tax write-offs? Buying a $40million Ferrari in a charity auction is not a tax write-off scenario
– We are pro-car and anti-Luce?
I love how this thing subverts expectations. I see it more competitive against a Taycan Turbo or something, but that’s not where Ferrari operates. Maybe reimagine as a Maserati birdcage sedan it could work?
Seinfeld, Season 8, Episode 5: “The Package”
Kramer: It’s a write-off for them.
Jerry: How is it a write-off?
Kramer: They just write it off.
Jerry: Write it off what?
Kramer: Jerry, all these big companies, they write off everything.
Jerry: <folding arms> You don’t even know what a write-off is.
Kramer: Do you?
Jerry: No, I don’t.
Kramer: But they do. And they’re the ones writing it off.
—
Sums up 99.9% of all conversations about “write-off”s.
I don’t have a problem with it being a sedan, or even a sort-of-CUV thing. I still wouldn’t consider it a Ferrari “halo” car, but I get the limitations of trying to stuff a big battery into a slinky sports car or even GT car.
The Taycan is a great foil for this discussion, because the Taycan is still a gorgeous car even though it’s an EV sedan. It proves that Ferrari could have built a beautiful, emotionally appealing EV, but they built this thing instead.
Then on top of that, a Taycan is at least cheaper than most 911’s, while the 600k price for the Luce is a 30% price jump over the 12Cilindri, which despite being a little controversial looking still has the Ferrari appeal.
Put another way, the Ferrari is the equivalent of effortlessly impressing nobody in some white running shoes with orthotics, straight cut jeans, and a tshirt. In another generation, the driver would be listening to big band music and calling his accountant to tell a dirty joke he just heard while parallel parking very poorly. Probably knows nothing about collector watches or limited edition anything
The Taycan doesn’t really give an impression of effortlessness
I think when people without money imagine the benefits of wealth, they project their need to maximize and underestimate the value of not having to care about anything
Yes, I’ll fully agree that the whims of the ultra-wealthy are not anything I’ll ever understand.
Maybe it’s a bit of mourning that we’ve reached that point with cars, since for so long these rarefied marques were a source of enjoyment and desire for us poors – you could stick a poster on your wall, or pick up a hot wheels model, or drive one in a video game and feel cool.
And maybe some of the ultra-rich have gotten to the point where they believe it’s tacky to have something the huddled masses view as cool and desirable, so they’re looking for a shift to something “new” that the poor will lambast but they secretly know is “cool.” In that way, perhaps Ferrari has a much better read on their customers than we do.
But it is a bit sad if that’s the case, since even though they’re ridiculous and unobtainable, it is kind of a bummer that we won’t have gorgeous cars worthy of a poster or computer desktop background.
And on the other hand, I think it’s important that the vast differences between the ultra-wealthy and the rest of us are put on display, so that the majority can start to push to close that ridiculous inequality gap.
I don’t think this is zero sum or a replacement of cars that you find attractive
The more people care about what Ferraris should look like the stronger their brand becomes in spite of selling this Luce which clearly doesn’t have universal appeal
“Why did The Autopian’s thumbnail guy edit the Ferrari into being the color of a Slate Truck?”
I thought that was going to be part of the “joke”. I was genuinely surprised that it’s actually the color that was on the real Ferrari, presumably with company approval.
I really like the Slate Truck, but a Ferrari probably shouldn’t be reminding me of it.
It looks like a plastic model kit before you paint it, except even that would be glossy. So what it looks more like is, why did Ferrari present their super duper controversial electric car in gray primer instead of finishing the paint job? Maybe they’re going to top this with the next one by showing it in red-brown matte primer? How about a nice random splotch pattern?
I have this feeling that I’m pretty much the only one on the internet that thinks this… but I kinda like it. That rear 3/4 view in matte grey is pretty awesome, and I love the interior. It’s a 4-door sedan in a world that’s killing sedans, and the rear doors are suicide doors! I like it more the more I see it.
I simply don’t care enough about Ferrari to be worried about how it doesn’t “look like a Ferrari”. Ferrari isn’t worried about that, so why would I?
You aren’t the only one. It’s a cool car.
Idk if it’s worth $600k, but that’s not my problem.
Oh. I never even realized it was a sedan. That’s cool.
There are plenty of reasons to make fun of it, but I think most of them wouldn’t matter if it cost less and wasn’t a Ferrari. If some unimportant-but-credible (heck, forget “credible”, REO gets interviewed here!) startup was making this at a lower price (600k presumably includes “Ferrari tax”) as some low-volume electric sport sedan, we’d be having a different conversation.
That being said, it isn’t that, so the conversation about a weird embarrassing Ferrari is valid.
It looks fine pitted against a Leaf or Ioniq5 or 6, but even if they dropped it to the 100k range that the other luxury EV sedans live in it would be bottom of the list for me. The Taycan, E-Tron GT, Tesla Model S, and even Lucid Air are much better looking cars that meet the expectation of a sporty luxury sedan.
That’s kinda the thing…Ferrari clearly don’t think it’s embarrassing. They’re selling it. The buyers don’t think it’s embarrassing or expensive, since it’s apparently sold out.
So Ferrari made something that doesn’t quite look as nice as a poster on their bedroom wall. Making that an issue is silly.
Honestly, I think this is the most interesting Ferrari in decades. Partially because they found a way to get everyone all riled up. But mostly because they actually did something different and cool.
I’m pretty sure there’s a whole narrative about Ferrari having buyers for the Luce because of the weird social obligations surrounding the company. So, mega-rich people might buy one to keep Ferrari privileges or something, because Ferrari can take people off “the list” if nobody bought a Luce.
Also, of course people buying a Ferrari don’t think it’s expensive, they’re buying a Ferrari.
I refuse to believe this car is an intentional troll to “get people riled up”. Ferrari cares too much about their image for that.
There is an intent behind the Luce, and there’s no way you ring Jony Ive to design unless you want to do something different. They’re not building a thing that they’ll have to tie to other future sales to move it. That wouldn’t make sense.
I suspect the Luce is actually a response to a declining Ultra Luxury segment – a segment where even the ultra-wealthy are objecting at paying another $500k for the same thing they just paid $250k for and looks the same as their other 4 Ferraris.
I’d be shocked if everything about the Luce isn’t exactly what they were going for. Living rent-free in the minds of rabid Ferrari fans is just a bonus.
Drop the Ferrari badge and pretentiousness, and it would be a perfectly cromulent $50-60k car. I’d be fine dropping the performance level too. I actually really like the interiors on these.
“and lose it in a Target parking lot with cavalier ease.”
HEY. Even back in the day, Cavaliers weren’t easy to lose in say a K-mart parking lot. For one, they came in all kinds of colors, and could be had in multiple (at one point, 4) body styles.
They peaked at 5 in the mid ’80s.
Not only that the locks and keys were so poor that you could easily get into someone else’s car thinking it was yours, and – before chipped keys with rolling codes – possibly even drive it off.
I stood about 10 feet away from it on Sunday for about 3 minutes. Then I walked away because I didn’t know why I was wasting my time paying any attention to it. I can’t even hate it, it just engenders no response. A Ferrari should spark an emotional response, love or hate. Aesthetically, that’s the designers only job. This was like looking at a primered bar of Lever 1000. Couldn’t care less.I’ve spent more time typing than I did looking. By that metric, maybe it’s a raging success.
We walked the entirety of the Ferrari lawn before realizing our friend was (still) stuck in what we have termed a “car-hole” perseverating to himself on how much he disliked this car.