Everyone seems to be mad about Ferrari’s first electric vehicle.
Called Luce and revealed on Monday, the design of the five-seater (gasp!) was led in large part by Jony Ive and the design firm he runs with Marc Newson, LoveFrom. While it ticks a lot of spec sheet boxes — it boasts 1,000 horsepower and the ability to hit 60 miles per hour in just over two seconds — it’s tracking to be the most mocked new vehicle since the Cybertruck.
This widespread rejection of the wedge-shaped, Nissan-resembling car covers seemingly the whole spectrum, too, from the typical flimsy knee-jerk reactions, to the positively vitriolic. The company’s stock price is down, and even some of the most down-the-middle news outlets are admitting it in their own ways. (Bloomberg said the Luce is “quite a stretch.”)
The question underneath all of this immediate backlash is singular: Who is the Luce for?
Certainly it’s not for me, or for almost anyone reading this. The Luce will cost around $650,000, and this is Ferrari we’re talking about, so even if you have that kind of money, you’re dealing with a company that is, shall we say, selective about its customers.
Is it for existing Ferrari owners? Typically, that answer is yes — more than 80% of the 14,000 people who bought a Ferrari last year already own one of its vehicles. It’s hard to imagine that crowd being sufficiently excited about a car that is so devoid of the fierce Ferrari angles that have adorned bedroom walls for decades.
Is it for other car designers? Possibly. Car companies borrow ideas all the time, and there’s definitely plenty on the interior — which features a lot of clicky buttons and knobs, a marked departure for Ive — that I’d personally like to see repeated elsewhere.
Is it for regulators? Well, maybe. The European Union is placing severe limits on the sale of new cars with internal combustion engines in 2035. The Luce may be the first step Ferrari’s taking toward a lineup that complies with those looming rules.
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