The new Ferrari Luce is much more than Ferrari’s first electric car. It is a desperate cry to find a new audience

We thought of 2026 as the year in which we would see Ferrari’s first electric car.

Boom.

As of February 9, we already know the first details of its interior. The company itself has made them public in what is the first of the many appetizers that they will provide us before knowing the final bite. At the moment we already have its name, its interior and a bomb: the design of the cabin has been carried out by Jony Ivewho led Apple design until his departure in 2019.

He Ferrari Lucewhich will be the company’s first electric car, has been seen with an interior that breaks with the entire collective imagination of what a Ferrari should be and, at the same time, draws on its history.

Why an electric Ferrari?

We have been talking about Ferrari’s first electric car for more than five years. Do you remember what life was like before 2020? The electric car seemed like the future, brands were striving to make the leap to zero emissions and the European Union warned that in 2035 we would not have a single car on sale with a combustion engine.

Five years later, regulators have accepted that cars with combustion engines can be sold. Of course, the common mortals will not touch them. Or, at least, we will not be able to go to the dealership and order one because the real demands regarding emissions dictate, right now, that if a brand does not want to pay fines it will have to sell many (very many) electric cars for each pure combustion car.

And that leaves two paths: either the brand sells those electric vehicles or it puts cars on the market that are expensive enough for the customer to pay the fine and continue to get an economic return from them. Come on, what Combustion cars will be a thing for the rich.

But this change in regulation comes late for most brands. Because almost all of them had launched a 100-meter dash race to have their electric cars ready as soon as possible. This career has come hand in hand with enormous investments that, except in very specific cases, were no longer worth stopping.

One of them is Ferrari.

The brand has needed to move forward with Luce, its first electric car. A car that will not only take advantage of the advantages of electric motors. The first thing its interior tells us is that the Ferrari Luce will be much more than a sports car. It is one of the most important cars in its history.

And Ferrari wants to make it a before and after.

Much more than an electric Ferrari

In its first electrified car, the Ferrari LaFerrari, the Maranello company sent a clear message: its first electrically powered car was going to be the most cutting-edge and wildest Ferrari ever built.

With its first fully electrified car, the first to be sold without an exhaust pipe, Ferrari sends another clear message: techie customer, customer who wants to be fashionable, we are here.

It is no coincidence that the cabin of This Ferrari Luce was designed by Jony Ive. Whoever was the head of design at Apple is considered one of the legends of industrial design, with decisions in which he clearly opted for form over functionality. The beautiful over the practical.

The Ferrari Luce is everything we could expect since the relationship between Ive and those from Maranello is known. The cabin plays with a neo-retro design, with a steering wheel that recalls the simplicity of the extreme sportiness of a Ferrari F40 or an interior where the buttons have been replaced by aviation-style keys. There are just a few buttons on the center console to raise and lower the windows or lock them. A kind of joystick acts as a gear shift lever.

The interior of the Luce does not forget that a Ferrari is a sports car with paddles behind the steering wheel rim. But the small islands that shelter the selection positions here forget about the most sporting details to prioritize more day-to-day functions. And this is important.

It still has a manettino to select the driving mode but it has a second lever to select what, we assume, will be the degree of power delivery to extend the battery’s autonomy. We have a direct button to control the wipers and another to, we suppose, deactivate the beeps of the wipers. ADAS systems. The turn signals, on what look like touch surfaces but I’ve explained to Top Gear which are physical, are integrated into the spokes of the steering wheel itself instead of having physical buttons and routes as in the brand’s latest models.

But, of course, what draws the most attention are its two screens. We have long accepted an instrument cluster and a central screen for a Ferrari. What we did not imagine is that the main screen would be the absolute queen of the cabin with its 10.12 inches and a mobile solution at the bottom that balances between genius and purist horror. The handle is pure Ive design.

The graphics displayed by Ferrari are so reminiscent of Apple that one would almost think they have embraced CarPlay Ultra. And at the same time, its 12.86-inch OLED instrument cluster screen is displayed as it would in a classic Ferrari, with its clocks well separated and extraordinary clarity for reading.

The whole set is a sample of where Ferrari is right now. The company could have chosen to put an electric car in the body of a combustion Ferrari. Instead he has embraced another proposal: if I can’t convince you to jump to an electric car, I will look for new customers.

Although those from Maranello have cars that are more or less usable on a daily basis, until now their proposals have always been consistent. racing Inside, a clear reminder that a Ferrari is for driving through the center of a city but it is still a beast on the circuit and on a curvy road.

The Ferrari Purosangue was already a warning that another audience was being sought. It was Ferrari’s surrender to a new way of understanding the market of the automobile. For years their cars have been somewhat more practical, more “comfortable” for everyday use. The Purosangue is already one of those cars that promise to be a car “for every day.”

The Luce is exactly that. Electric sales in the big luxury supercar brands are not working. In China, customers have abandoned traditional brands because new offerings offer them more than just driving. The Luce directly attacks those customers. It does not expect to win over those who buy a Ferrari 12Cilindri, it aims at another type of audience.

That public is on the streets, they want to use their car every day. And everything indicates that the Ferrari Luce will be exactly that, the type of car that is also a fashion accessory. The company, like Porsche, has managed to play in the complicated challenge of increase your production without devaluing the product. The Ferrari Luce, without knowing all the details, seems to be positioned as that alternative chic.

Like that car to walk around Miami, to go to charity dinners, to pick up the children from school. And, at the same time, to have the latest in design from one of the most aspirational brands.

Photo | Ferrari

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