It could have come from the lips of Star Trek’s resident pointy-eared Vulcan, Mr. Spock. “It’s a Ferrari, Jim. But not as we know it”.
Yes, the Skittles-colored toaster-on-wheels you see before you is, alarmingly, Ferrari’s newest offering. It’s called Luce, which is Italian for light, and is the Prancing Horse brand’s first four-door, five-seat, all-electric luxury crossover.
As you might expect, its unveiling a couple of weeks ago caused the kind of uproar and internet meltdown not seen since the debut of the Tesla Cybertruck, or Jaguar’s crazy, Barbie-pink, electric four-door GT.
What prompted the frenzied fury was simply the Luce’s exterior design. If like me, you firmly believe that Ferraris should be things of true beauty, with jaw-dropping style, designed to seduce and thrill, then the Luce is a shock.
Take away the prancing horse badges, and the Luce would indeed be unrecognizable as a Ferrari, any Ferrari. A new Honda, Hyundai or newcomer from China, for sure. Or maybe the car that Apple designed but never built.
Which makes sense considering the Luce’s controversial shape came off the drawing board of former Apple chief design officer, Sir Jony Ive.
He, together with famed Australian industrial designer Marc Newson – who in fact designed a toaster for Sunbeam – run San Francisco-based design consulting firm, LoveFrom, that Ferrari turned to for a clean-sheet design for its first EV.
Of course, Ferrari argues that, being an electric car, it’ll be targeted at an entirely new demographic. Everyone from the Silicon Valley tech crowd, to crazy rich Asians who are more impressed at it being an impress-your-friends, 1,000 hp EV than a low-slung, V12-engined prancing horse.
Impressed too that it has by far the coolest interior of any Ferrari. Ever. The look, the feel, the style is just sensational. This is where the design brilliance of Jony Ive and Marc Newson emerge.
You see it in details like the truly-gorgeous, three-spoke steering wheel that’s a deliberate nod to Ferraris past, and the articulating screen in the center of the dash. The launch control ‘handle’ you pull down from the roof to engage, like some control from a Bell helicopter? Pure theater.
Climb aboard and the Luce has plenty of stretch-out, rear-seat kneeroom and plenty of luggage space beneath that high-lifting tailgate. As it should have, measuring 197.9 inches bow to stern – two inches more than Ferrari’s Purosangue SUV – over 78 inches wide and 60.8 inches tall. And like the Purosangue, it has rear-hinged ‘suicide’ doors for visual drama.
What goes without saying is that the Luce will be sensational to drive. With a quartet of electric motors – one for each wheel – delivering a combined output of 1,035 hp, and juiced by a honking 122 kWh battery pack, Ferrari claims 0-to-62 acceleration in 2.5 seconds, a 193 mph top speed and a solid range of around 330 miles.
While those numbers sound impressive, remember a Tesla Model X Plaid is just as fast, while Porsche’s Taycan Turbo GT with 1,019 hp can hit 60 in 1.9 seconds.
Then there’s the Lucid Air Sapphire with 1,234 hp that can catapult to 60 mph in a blistering 1.89 seconds and can go 427 miles on a charge. And each one costs a fraction of the Luce’s price.
Talking of which, the electric Ferrari is expected to start at a jaw-dropping $645,000, though add a few options and you’re likely looking at three-quarters of a million. Which is considerably more than Rolls-Royce charges for its electric Spectre.
Truth is, Ferrari will likely have no problem finding buyers for the estimated 800 to 1,000 Luces it’ll build each year. Order books are said to be already full through to the end of 2027.
Early hand-raisers are, I’m sure, existing Ferrari owners happy, as always, to buy anything new with a prancing horse badge on the hood. The first cars arrive in the U.S. in spring next year.
Yes, with time, I’m certain the shape will seem less controversial, less unconventional, less like an extra from Pixar’s Cars movie.
Thankfully, Ferrari will continue to build combustion-engined cars that stir the soul, and are a feast for the eyes. Cars that are true bella macchinas.
