Topline
The unveiling of a new electric supercar from Ferrari sharply divided the internet Tuesday morning as traditionalists decried the design as “an Apple product on wheels” and supporters praised the luxury brand’s bold attempt at a reinvention.
The Ferrari Luce, the brand’s first electric vehicle.
Ferrari
Key Facts
Ferrari’s unveiling of the Luce—a $640,000 speedster and its first ever electric model—sent shares down around 6% Tuesday morning as the brand’s fans slammed the new model as an abandonment of its identity, specifically noting its aggressive styling.
The car was designed in collaboration with former Apple designer Jony Ive and his business partner Marc Newson, who are credited with designing the Apple Watch, and the pair brought a distinctive Silicon Valley style to the Luce.
The vehicle’s entire upper half is made of glass with an aluminum body and the interior is made of rounded corners with thin lighting elements and flush surfaces—a firm departure from Ferrari’s traditionally dramatic and mechanical-forward visuals.
Tech and design fans weighing in online love the minimalist Ive influence, but others instantly flooded social media with memes and jokes that roasted the Luce as looking like it was “designed entirely in airplane mode” or as if “an Apple Store made a minivan and gave it trust issues.”
Flavio Manzoni, Ferrari’s chief design officer, said he knows the design is “polarizing” but said he’s confident fans will embrace the new car with time.
The interior of the Ferrari Luce, designed by Jony Ive and Marc Newson.
Ferrari
Crucial Quote
“The Luce does not look like a Ferrari. It looks like the concept for a Honda Hydrogen vehicle from 2002,” wrote Luke Plunkett of Aftermath, a culture blog. “It looks like one of the “this is what the future will look like from the 90s” cars from Demolition Man, only worse. It looks like a child’s remote-controlled car you’d buy for $10 from an Aliexpress-ass market stall. It looks like anything but a Ferrari.”
Surprising Fact
With no engine to produce the signature roar of an accelerating sports car, Ferrari replicated the sound with what the company calls an “external amplification system.” When drivers hit the gas, despite the electric batteries making no noise, the car will still make a roar that can be projected inside or out onto the street.
Key Background
Ferrari announced it would make an electric car in 2021 and that same year signed a deal with Ive’s design company LoveFrom. Ferrari Chairman John Elkann said he chose Ive after calling the Apple Watch, the design for which Ive is responsible, “probably the most successful example” of a digital reinvention of a traditionally analog product. Talking about the watch in 2018, Ive said it was an “obvious continuation” of the iPhone and made the technology “more personal and more accessible. “Since its founding in 2019, LoveFrom has been hired by Apple, the Steve Jobs Archive, Airbnb, Christie’s auction house, OpenAI and the British royal family. Its deal with Ferrari also has LoveForm working with the brand’s largest shareholder, the Exor holding company. Exor is controlled by Italy’s Agnelli family and is set to work with LoveFrom on projects outside of Ferrari, the Wall Street Journal reported. The company’s portfolio also includes stakes in Stellantis (Chrysler and Fiat’s parent company), fashion house Christian Louboutin and Italian soccer team Juventus F.C.
Tangent
In 2024, Ferrari opened a $230 million factory in Italy to allow for production of the Luce while other car brands pulled back from the EV market. Mass-production brands like Ford, GM, Honda and Volvo have all retreated from their EV initiatives in one way or another as consumer demand plummets, profit falls and policy makers deprioritize moving away from traditional gas power. Luxury and performance brands have done the same: Lamborghini scrapped its first planned EV, the Lanzador, due to low demand and Porsche’s Flagship K1 SUV, initially planned as a fully electric vehicle, will now launch exclusively with gas and plug-in hybrid options. McLaren has said it’s not interested in going electric with the market—and technology—as it is now.
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