I can’t help but get the sense that many enthusiasts don’t care about new Ferraris. They can make eleventy million horsepower and have laser beams for windscreen wipers and it still won’t matter. They’re too generic, too unobtanium, no longer objects of desire or even interest. The Ferrari Luce, on the other hand, is interesting. Not just because it’s electric, but because it’s an absolute freak. Welcome to the weirdest Ferrari since the Mondial, and possibly the weirdest Italian car since the Fiat Multipla.
Right, let’s get the specs out of the way first because they somehow aren’t the most interesting thing about the Luce. This EV has four motors kicking out a combined 1,035 horsepower, but don’t think they’re all identical. The front two motors combined can only generate 282 horsepower, which means the two rear motors are responsible for 835 ponies. That should make things lively in more ways than a claimed zero-to-62 mph in 2.5 seconds. A good clip behind the Lucid Air Sapphire and Porsche Taycan Turbo GT, but still seriously rapid. Speaking of pace, Ferrari claims zero-to-124 MPH in 6.8 seconds and a top speed of 193 MPH. What’s the curb weight, you ask? Well, it’s a claimed 4,982 pounds. Luce is Italian for ‘light’, but not that kind of light.
Feeding those motors is the responsibility of a 122 kWh battery pack, although that’s gross rather than net capacity, and don’t expect that gargantuan figure to result in serious range. Ferrari claims 330 miles on the WLTP cycle, about on par with a 2022 Kia EV6 long-range RWD which was rated at 310 miles on the EPA cycle. Expect a final figure around that ballpark for the Luce. In another weird similarity to the aforementioned Kia, the Luce also features an 800-volt architecture, except the Ferrari’s good to actually max out 350 kW DC fast chargers.
As you’d probably expect with something weighing nigh-on 5,000 pounds, Ferrari’s pulled out all the stops to make it go ’round corners. We’re talking active electrohydraulic suspension, four-motor torque vectoring, rear-wheel-steering with up to 2.15 degrees of angle, 265-section front and 315-section rear tires, and the latest version of Ferrari’s dynamics management software. Want to slow down? In addition to up to 500 kW of regenerative braking, the Luce sports 15.4-inch carbon ceramic discs up front and 14.6-inch units out back.
So then, what about engagement? While simulated V12 F1 car soundtracks would be neat, Ferrari’s gone in the complete opposite direction. Instead, the Luce processes actual sound from the rear drive motors, with various profiles and intensity depending on the drive mode. At the same time, paddle shifters aren’t just there for regenerative braking, the right paddle can adjust available torque, giving a kick in the backside with each pull. And we haven’t even reached the interesting part yet.
Designed by Apple veteran Jony Ive and “trustworthy and honest” public toilet designer Marc Newson, the Ferrari Luce is the first car from Maranello to carry the silhouette of a Magic Mouse. It has a dash-to-axle ratio of no, an enormous sweeping roofline, and a serious amount of wedge to the belt line. It’s certainly not objectively beautiful, but it’s also not immediately repulsive in the same way the new Mercedes-AMG GT 4-Door Coupe is. Electrification has allowed for all sorts of new shapes of cars. This is one of them.
You can really tell the Luce’s roots lie in tech design rather than automotive design because there’s just so little typical Ferrari DNA here. While surface tension and thick black trim tries to take some weight out of the bottoms of the doors, there’s still an enormous amount of unbroken metal down each flank. Huge black bezels around vents on the front doors make the Luce look stubbier than its 197.87-inch length suggests. The down-the-road graphic is virtually impossible to anthropomorphize, the rear end treatment looks like it’s nesting an entire other car within it, and this is all only at a macro level.
Zoom in on the Luce and you start to notice some outrageous details. While the rear coach doors are precedented by the Purosangue SUV, they barely scratch the surface of the oddities dotted about the exterior. Each windscreen wiper’s resting position is completely vertical, like two Tesla Cybertrucks welded together longitudinally. This is because the Luce has no conventional wiper cowl, and each wiper arm simply sprouts out of an enormous windscreen with a big frit band to meet a giant recessed black hood insert.
Around back, a band of tinted plastic hides four circular inner elements, melding a touch of F355 Berlinetta with a touch of facelift Jaguar XJS. Oh, and while you’d expect the Luce to feature a lineup of wheels all more visually complicated than webs woven by spiders on LSD, you can tick an option box for the cleanest set of five-spoke alloys from Ferrari in decades.
If that isn’t enough visual whiplash for you, just take a look at the interior of the Luce. If you were expecting the dashboard to be a holodeck, you’d be mistaken. Instead, you get loads of leather and aluminum, real buttons and toggle switches, and an uncharacteristically pretty steering wheel reminiscent of the classics. Granted, this shouldn’t be much of a surprise. Metallic finishes are a hallmark of Ive’s Apple tenure, and elements on the OLED infotainment screen and digital instrument cluster bristle with his influence.
Add it all up and the Ferrari Luce is an extremely Marmite proposition. It doesn’t evoke emotion, it evokes a skeptical sort of studiousness, something you don’t normally get from something with a Prancing Horse on the front. At the same time, a €550,000 electric Ferrari was always going to have a buyer pool the size of a shot glass, so why not get bizarre with it? Some might call it a crime, but when the 849 Testarossa looks the way it does and a Ferrari SUV is something you can actually buy, any connotations of sacredness died a long time ago. As long as every future Ferrari doesn’t look like the Luce, I’m okay with it. At least it’ll make the 2075 Pebble Beach lawn more interesting.
Top graphic credit: Ferrari
I don’t get why people are bagging on it…I like the way it looks.
Dang, that was some of the most entertaining, informative and well thought out automotive journalism I’ve yet to read.
Well done, @thomashundal
They will sell every single one of them that they make and it isn’t the ugliest Ferrari currently for sale.
This car as a Ferarri? “Ew, gross, it’s ugly”
This car with an Apple badge on it? “Wow, this is brilliant!”
Pretty sure I used one of these to rewind my VHS tapes before returning them to Blockbuster.
Looking at these pictures and I am convinced not one of them is of a real car rhat actually exists. These are all rendered images. This car has wonky proportions. I’m not into Ferrari’s because I can’t afford them, but even I can say that this is not a Ferrari. At least Ferrari knows how to design good looking cars aside from this thing.
This is Ferrari’s FU to EV mandates. Nobody that’s really a Ferrari person is going to pay a half million dollars (or so) for this sedan. Ferrari is so embarrassed to show this to the world, they didn’t even show in their signature red color. Even Ferrari knows this isn’t a Ferrari.
Even Ferrari knows this isn’t a Ferrari.
The Ferrari Non La Ferrari.
Showed it to the Pope, must be true…
Somebody at Ferrari is getting fired.
Also, who made the decision to show the car NOT in Rosso Scuderia, Rosso Corsa, something Ferrari
I need to see how the trunk opens. That will determine if I buy one.
And the glovebox. If you have to go through the infotainment system to open it, I’m out.
Where the F are the lasers?
Where the L are the fazers?
Phasers? Star Trek. Engage
Thanks for telling me the rear of the car looks like a car nesting inside of another car. Thanks for that. Can’t unsee.
But which car is inside? To my eye, it’s an 8th gen Chevy Impala.
Its definitely and Impala inside
It looks like a Lucid eating an F430 to me.
Try the back of a BMW i8 🙂
They’ll likely sell everyone they make. They’ve curated a walled garden of people with loads of money who need to lord their possessions over each other and the plebs. The exclusivity is absurd.
But here’s the question: do they make you buy a bunch of their other cars before they let you buy this one, or do you have to buy this one to get in the line for something else?
Given the ecosystem they’ve established, probably both.
I don’t hate the car per-se. it is a decidedly new design and departure for Ferrari and in keeping with the coming step away from traditional ICE to the new world of EV’s.
I find it a refreshing step away from the histrionic overdone products of the last several decades.
It’s a first effort in a new direction and is likely pointed more to the Middle East, China and Far East rather than western palate. I think the media and commentariat’s OMG overreaction is an expression of this change which is much like that for the new Jaguar designs.
Enough rambling. I’m sure Adrian would have a much better and coherent analysis than my lazy chair take.
I agree. It does seem odd we’re stuck on the idea any new Ferrari should look no more than slightly different from every old Ferrari.
This reminds me of when companies switch their logo and inevitably everyone hates it for like a week before forgetting what the old one even looked like.
The internet minute.
meant to add ppl shouldn’t get too upset b/c inevitably in 25 years they’ll switch back to the old one.
The burning question I have is whether the body-colored band across the hood (which the emblem and headlights are fixed to) is actually a “bridge” that spans between the wheel arches.
It looks to me like the actual hood is completely black and descends smoothly from the base of the windshield directly to the bumper, with that colored band suspended over it.
I would love to see a photo looking down the hood from the driver’s seat, to determine if there is actually a big gap between the headlights through which the driver can see the road.
It is a large gap, I saw the walk around video this morning. So there is essentially a huge front wing over the nose
Great! Thanks for the reply. That certainly makes the car more interesting. I still don’t know how I feel about it, but “interesting” is worth something.
The car would look more aggressive and Ferrari-like without it, but I wonder if it might be providing some anti-roll rigidity.
Agreed. EVs have so much design potential and yet most look the same as ICE cars. Credit for doing something creative/original. People guffaw at the price, but just remember wait 4 years and you’ll pick one up at Carmax for $300K.
I think the engineering in this car is really impressive, but people are hung up on the looks. I think of Ferrari more in terms of things being stripped down to the bare essentials between driver and machine and this seems closer than a lot of other EVs, besides conversions.
I’m not remotely their target demographic, but I respect what they’re doing here, especially with the amplified drivetrain instead of fake engine noises.
Who, exactly, is this for?
Ultra-rich who want a spot in the queue to buy the Ferrari they actually want.
Meh. If you’d told me it was the new Lucid, or a render of some new Vapourware electric car startup, I’d find that more believable than it being a Ferrari. No sir, I don’t like it. Bland, lumpy electric blob for tech bros.
I don’t hate it. This is a good design in the sense that if one of the tech companies, like Sony or Apple, that threatened to produce an automobile actually followed through, the design language works. I can actually see this with an Apple logo tooling around Silicone Valley being piloted by some new-money tech bro who was dying to trade in his Tesla for something worthy of his cashed out stock options. (Which makes sense as the people who designed this are responsible for the original iPhone.) But as a Ferrari, there’s little connection to the current or former designs other than the four round taillights (which itself isn’t unique) so I can see why so many people are taking issues with the look.
That said, I agree that the interior is great. I prefer the all-black steering wheel over the bare metal spokes but the overall design is visually pleasing and seems functional. The clever details, like the screens inside the three “gauges” are cool. The integrations of the front and rear “wings” for airflow is useful. And the windshield wipers’ resting point along the A-pillars, is a great done properly, aesthetically appealing, and with intention (looking at you, Cybertruck.)
For that price however, I mean even the Purosangue found buyers so who knows.
I rather like the look of it. But in an ‘I certainly wouldn’t want one and it’s not a Ferrari’ sort of way. I was lucky enough to go to a high end car meet at the weekend and say a beautiful Testarossa, a near mint looking 308 and even one of those weird Mondial things Adrian likes. They were Ferraris and my 13 yo daughter wanted to look at them and ask questions. I don’t think she or I will be making a beeline for this in the future.
TBH I’d rather have a real prancing horse like at the circus than anything the house of Ferrari puts out
It looks like a handsome compact scaled up too far and then massaged to hide the bulk. I’d cross-shop it with a Kia EV6.
It used to be that economy cars would use tricks like black rocker panels, black B-pillars and inset rear fascias to hide their mass and make their silhouettes appear more like a Ferrari, but now that they’ve parted ways with Pininfarina, Ferrari has to make cars that pretend to look like Ferraris.
At no point in my childhood did I think that I’d miss the envy I used to feel about Ferrari. I thought that, against my better judgment, I’d always desire one, and seeing one would always excite me.
Damn.
“an extremely Marmite proposition” … I had not heard of this phrase before. Quite perfect here. I do love the interior. I bet the exterior looks better in person, but it did immediately remind me of a Nissan Leaf.
That’s the best looking Nissan Leaf I’ve ever seen.