Ferrari in the Storm

The first EV car of the Italian brand has backfired

One does not need to be a car collector or a Ferrari fan to have read, seen, or noticed how badly the launch of Ferrari’s first EV, named Luce, has backfired.

Last weekend was supposed to be a glorious celebration in Rome, marking the Italian manufacturer’s first step into the future of electric mobility. Journalists were flown in from all over the world, but things did not go as expected. For the first time in its history, Ferrari not only failed to deliver an exciting launch, it disappointed to the point that its shares erased almost $5 billion in value (around 8%) overnight, a sign of investors’ lack of confidence in its ability to deliver genuine innovation while remaining faithful to the brand’s legacy.

Luce is arguably the greatest flop in the history of the legendary brand, and an indelible dent in its reputation.

I am all for innovation and change, even within a heritage brand, but I am also a fierce protector of brands. From what I have seen and read, this car is definitely risking damage to Ferrari’s image and brand value. Ferrari is, and has long been, one of the most recognised, admired, and desired brands in the world, even above Chanel, Nike, or Coca-Cola in terms of awareness, and arguably above all others in terms of aspiration.

Men, women, and children stop to photograph a Ferrari parked outside a restaurant or roaring down a city street. Nothing of the sort happens for a suit, a handbag, or almost anything else. Therefore, even though I am no automotive expert, I believe one has to be a car design expert to design a car. I always observe cars to understand future design trends. Cars are the ultimate eye cleanser when it comes to design evolution, more so than fashion and often even more than architecture. Industrial design shapes our collective taste, and cars are perhaps its most visible expression.

The Luce’s minimalist styling, developed with former Apple design chief Jony Ive’s LoveFrom agency, has been highly polarising. On social media, fans and critics alike compared the car to mass-market electric vehicles, luxury appliances, and consumer electronic devices rather than to a Ferrari.

I believe that John Elkann, Ferrari’s Chairman, and Benedetto Vigna, its CEO, are dangerously veering towards fashion, trends, and lifestyle diversification. They seem to have treated Luce as a vanity project, much like the fashion collections and, soon enough, the sailing yacht. Talk about brand dilution.

The price of the car did not help. At $640,000, it is certainly aligned with Ferrari’s status in terms of cost, though not necessarily in terms of design. I am not qualified to judge the technology, but from what I have read it is better than average. A Ferrari has always communicated three things before a word is spoken: its sound, its iconic red, its distinctive shape. Luce has none of them: it’s silent by necessity, pale blue by choice, and shaped, apparently, by neither heritage nor instinct.

Luce looks like a generic luxury sedan or, viewed from above in the launch video, an iPhone.

So why? How can a team so accustomed to success make such a monumental mistake?