Just unlock your phone, select the icon of your favorite social network and scroll to get an idea that there are two kinds of people in the world: those who have already given their opinion about the new Ferrari Luce and those who are about to give their opinion.
Because if Ferrari has achieved anything by showing the inside of its first electric car (we will see the exterior in May) is to make it clear that we all have an opinion. For or against. It doesn’t matter almost because 99% of us who give our opinion will not be able to buy an electric one either, which, of course, will not fit into the new one. Auto+ Plan of purchase aid.
Yes, you don’t have to think too much to get an idea of who is against it.
I myself am not sure if it disgusts me or, outright, horrifies me.
And despite everything, it is very clear to me that Ferrari has hit the right buttons.
Enzo, this is not a Ferrari
They say that Enzo Ferrari took revenge for the criticism of his cars with one of those outings that only an Italian in the category of Il Commendatore You can sign: “I don’t sell cars, I sell engines. I gave the car away, the engine has to be assembled somewhere.”
Whether it’s true or notwhich with these quotes you never know, the phrase not only reflects a philosophy for your company, it also captured the essence of an entire era. The Ferrari boss died in 1988, just a year after the launch of the Ferrari F40the supercar that commemorated the four decades of the firm’s history.
That Ferrari F40 was the last car supervised by Enzo Ferrari and it was a shock to the table. Gerhard Berger, who drove for the brand in Formula 1, noted that the F40 was “very easy to drive… if you have experience with racing cars.” And he wasn’t lying. Jason Barlow, in Top Gearexplains that the car accelerates wildly, as if it lived inside a chapter of the Looney Tunes.
In carwow define its spirit well: “the luxury of this Ferrari was not having any luxury.” Seeking extreme lightness, the car lacked air conditioning, floor mats, sound system or upholstered panels. The result was immediately evident: the F40 was the fastest car at the time with a top speed of 324km/h.
Yes, the F40 was a special car, one of those series that those from Il Cavallino they throw every 10 years to honor their own historyto claim every decade to be the most important brand in the world. Whether or not it is true, they have won the speech.
I say this because, since then, Ferrari has been slowing down its launches. Until the death of Enzo Ferrari, his cars obeyed the maxim of being, above all, an engine with wheels. You had to have hands to drive a Ferrari. Many concessions had to be made. But the evolution of technology has brought us to where we are today. Cars that do not need to be extremely radical and that can even be relatively comfortable on a daily basis while being a bomb on a track.
When we had the opportunity to play the Lamborghini Revuelto I saw it clearly. Today, a luxury supercar brand has to think about its most radical customers, it cannot forget the purists, those who really enjoy the sound of a V12 at full throttle on a track or in a Autobahn.
But the luxury supercar is now much more than that. They are also cars to get around the city center, to go to your favorite restaurant. They have to be easy to carry for an audience that is never going to take advantage of the burst of power they keep in their guts.
That is where Ferrari has been pointing in recent years. The Italians have achieved the most complicated thing for a luxury brand: to be desired and aspirational despite the fact that Never before have so many Ferraris been sold. They produce more than ever, but demand remains intact. And if that demand is still alive, it is not only for those who seek the thunderous sound of a V12, it is for those who buy a Purosangue and for those who will buy an electric car with the Ferrari emblem on the nose.
That’s why I understand that the brand has opted to hand over the keys to the house to Jony Ive and go on vacation for years with the uncomfortable tranquility of someone who knows that when he returns he will find it upside down. And he doesn’t know if that’s good or bad.
Ive’s bet has been to create a groundbreaking and different interior for a car that needs to build its own story. Ferrari has the means and knowledge to make the most advanced electric car in the world. Your technical datawith 1,000 HP, four motors and a 122 kWh battery, aims to achieve this. But building the most radical and fastest electric supercar was not going to do them any good. Because the public for that car does not exist. At least for now.
What does exist is a gigantic fishing ground of rich people who want a car as a fashion accessoryof those who do not value Ferrari for its history, for making the best-sounding V12s. This car has been created for them, so that they can enjoy it every day on their trips to the luxury shopping center, to the sports club or to pick up the children from the most elite school in the area.
If Ferrari had targeted the brand’s biggest fans with its first electric car, they would have failed.either. Because technology is capable of giving us a wild stream of hundreds and hundreds of HP of power for little money. But those customers, who look for the roar of a gigantic engine behind them and a wild thump with each gear change, are not the least bit interested in an electric car. Not at least in these terms.
Because the electric car will bring us many new things. Wild accelerations, cornering unimaginable a few years ago… but the sound of a V12 revving up until it hits the right cam with rage, the hoarse backfire when downshifting, the metallic beat of a gearbox in H are things that will leave and never return.
He’s not coming back.
And those customers, those who seek the essence that Ferrari gives off and gave off, are not going to be conquered by an electric car. For them, the only valid excuse to buy it will be collect one more unit to be able to aspire to the brand’s new commemorative beast.
It was foolish to target them in this first foray with the electric car. In Maranello they have opted for the most logical and conservative. Although, paradoxically, it is the most groundbreaking.
Photos | Ferrari and Krzysztof Hepner
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