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.
Those taillights look like the came off a 1995 Maxima.
(Pre loop Technics KN2000 Rock 1 setting)
Once upon a time, I drove a Ferrari Luce down the freeway
The battery pack was too heavy
Jony Ive made it look like a white plastic iPod
It is an electric four-door that costs way too much money, jerk!
Ferrari Luce
Ferrari Luce
Ferrari Luce
Ferrari Luce
It weighs five thousand pounds
It does not have a V12 engine
It costs over six hundred thousand dollars
It makes fake engine noises through a speaker
Ferrari Luce
Ferrari Luce
Ferrari Luce
Ferrari Luce
Rock over London!
Rock on Chicago!
T-mobile it’s better over here!
We can shit on this car all we want, but Lamborghini is selling enough overpriced SUV’s.
Autopians are not the average car buyer.
“Mr. Optimus Prime? Your prescription suppository is ready for pickup.”
Eh. The Ferrari blob does nothing for me. Someone could probably put prancing moose decals onto a red Lucid Air and fool most people.
I don’t really give a shit about Ferrari, it’s maybe one of the 2 or 3 least interesting automakers to me, but I don’t really hate the Luce. It’s not a car for enthusiasts, but I’m not sure that any modern Ferrari is… The exterior is inoffensive (aside from the wipers, that’s just weird), the interior looks incredible, it’s stupid fast, the operator experience is likely very friendly/un-intimidating, and it’s got prancing horses on it so everyone will know it’s expensive. I expect I’ll see scads of them roaming around Newport Beach or Singapore the next time I visit.
The Roma/Amalfi is pretty nice to look at and to drive but 200-300k
8. You won’t see them very often.
The only way that’s happening in 20 years is if it’s one of those cars that burned to the ground and you’re just buying the VIN to slap on a completely new car (maybe that can be David’s 2046 EBay partnership!). The only people these are going to sell to are collectors who will park it in a climate-controlled garage for the next 20 years and “know what they got”, or people trying to stay in Ferrari’s good graces (which begs the question, why? There are so many supercars today, many of them cooler than any modern Ferrari, so why do you care if those arrogant pricks won’t sell you a car? /digression) who won’t sell the car for that cheap because it would piss off Ferrari.
Or possibly a BMW i8, when they describe it to the police as “looked like it was giving birth to another car”.
Why? Unobtainable Veblen goods.
Some parts of the design are cool, but oof that rear 3/4 view is particularly awful. Looks like a WillIAm kit car.
Point 3 made me laugh out loud.
And David, I saw an i3S in a sort of medium brown metallic color the other day and it actually did look kind of nice.
11. The pedals look cool.
12. The instrument cluster appears to have useful gauges on it instead of being another busy screen.
Jason, could we please get a closer look at those fancy ass Crocs you’re sporting, with what appears to be a faux (?) quilted leather pattern on them?
I think I figured out why this car bothers me. Remember that “haute couture” brand selling white t-shirts with their brand, at absurd prices? This is the car equivalent.
There is no reason for it to cost this much other than the logo. There’s nothing else to differentiate this from a BYD at the end of the day. Could this be the car that will break the spell and show that the king is naked?
I regret that I have but one upvote I can give your comment. It nails it.
Everything inside says BYD couldn’t make it with an unlimited budget.
The world really does need more Violent Femmes references. Jason is doing the lord’s work.
It gave me a Good Feeling.
Also, not many rich kids will be telling Daddy Gimme The Car with this particular…thing.
Lastly, Ferrari can Kiss Off.
“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…”
If you stop thinking of it as a car and start thinking of it as a token for the purchase of a $40MM tax deduction – Then it all makes much more sense.
And given we know the guy who purchased it is a Boomer Billionaire from Palm Beach – well, it’s unlikely to be driven farther than an enclosed car hauler which can take it to Monterey Regional Airport. It will likely be flown to Palm Beach International, trucked to the Port of Palm Beach/Foreign Trade Zone #135 to be garaged, and never thought of again until he dies and the executor/trustees need to do something with it.
“My BMW i3S is more technologically advanced than this Ferrari.”
If you consider a decade+ old single-motor, short-range electric with an ICE range extender more advanced than a full EV with multiple motors – then let me clip a very long cord to a landline and a portable generator to a fax machine and and put it along with a digital camera on a Radio Flyer, which I will consider more advanced than the smartphone in your pocket.
I know Boomer is used nowadays as a synonym for a rich old person, but the buyer is technically a Silent Generation in his late 80s. Tax deduction makes no sense, it’s probably for the kick of donating to the Ferrari Charity and perhaps the huge media coverage that comes with it.
Deduction vs donation – it’s the same thing.
This – No one needs a Ferrari. A Ferrari is an emotional purchase, it stirs something up in a person, it FEELS like a Italian supercar, it feels like a Ferrari. The styling isn’t that bad in a vacuum, but it’s not soul stirring – I gotta have one. The Luce looks/feels like any anonymous crossover at your local Walmart.
Of course, Ferrari could sell a gallon of Enzo’s urine for $10M and it would sell out in a day. They seem to be able to do no wrong. When was the last F1 title again?
2008
Not that anyone’s counting or anything
Ferrari is a lifestyle brand as much/more than it is a race team or car mfgr… I can see the Luce being an emotional purchase, just not for the same buyer. More like a high end handbag or a fancy watch.
But nine, nine, nine for a lost god
And ten, ten, ten, ten for everything, everything, everything, everything
Was waiting to see if any other olds caught it.
As the youths say, deep cut
Rear wheel steering for the win, and that came out with a hairball cough.
“I forget was what 8 was for…”
A solid Violent Femmes reference! Ya love to see it!
In those photos, it almost looks like a child’s toy – slightly cartoonish proportions, generic An Car design…
…except it isn’t.
Yikes.
Fellow dankpods/garbage time enjoyer?
The matte gray one literally looks like a rock someone left in the tumbler for about a year too long.
I hate this car, even with Torch helping us to like it.
Gray market Ferrari.
Enzo Ferrari: I build engines and attach wheels to them.
Ferrari engineer: The Luce doesn’t have an engine. It has motors.
Enzo: F**k it, do whatever you want.
Enzo spinning in his grave, the ultimate clean energy source.
Here’s my try:
“That’s a good-looking Charger.”
Ferrari branded suppositories! That’s gold, Jason! Gold!