Ferrari is breaking a lot of new ground with the Luce. It\u2019s the luxury automaker\u2019s first car with five seats, its first partnership with Apple\u2019s former chief designer Jony Ive \u2014 who designed the iPhone, among other products \u2014 and the luxury automaker\u2019s first electric vehicle.<\/p>\n
But Ferrari is taking a risk releasing the Luce when the market for luxury EVs is questionable.<\/p>\n
Must Read <\/p>\n
Porsche, for instance, is considering scrapping (1) the 718 Boxster and Cayman EVs, citing rising expenses and development delays. Bentley delayed its electric-only goal from 2030 to 2035 \u2014 and then scrapped that entirely (2).<\/p>\n
Mercedes Benz EVs quietly disappeared (3) from U.S. dealers last year due to decreased demand (though they\u2019re returning now). General Motors has indefinitely suspended (4) work on the Hummer EV (along with the Silverado and Sierra EVs) and slowed production (5) of electric Cadillacs.<\/p>\n
Still, Ferrari is betting on the power of its name and the passion of its customer base to succeed where competitors have failed to break through.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s despite the Luce\u2019s price tag. In development since 2021, the new EV retails for $640,000, making it one of the most expensive Ferraris that weren\u2019t a limited production.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what you get for that price, and whether Ferrari\u2019s gamble will pay off.<\/p>\n
A different type of Ferrari <\/p>\n
The Luce (pronounced-loo-chay, Italian for \u2018light\u2019) looks considerably different than a typical Ferrari. Its upper half is made of glass (6), as are many fittings, filling it with light.<\/p>\n
It has an aluminum body (7) and sits lower to the ground than the Purosangue, Ferrari\u2019s first four-door vehicle, released two-years ago. Its wheels are the largest ever on a Ferrari and the doors are center opening. Taillights glow through a black panel on the back of the car.<\/p>\n
The Luce can go from 0 to 60 in under 2.5 seconds and reaches a top speed of 190 mph. Top Gear\u2019s Jason Barlow reviewed (8) the car, noting that Ferrari had originally considered building on its F80 hybrid and developing a \u201csupercar\u201d, but decided against it.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet’s face it, if you want a supercar, you probably wanted to have a combustion engine,\u201d he said, adding that the design team decided to build a bigger car instead, with space for more people.<\/p>\n
Drivers will still hear the Ferrari roar, but it won\u2019t come from the engine. Instead, it\u2019s sourced to what the company calls an \u201cexternal amplification system,\u201d which it compares to an electric guitar.<\/p>\n
Read More: Taxes are going to change under Trump\u2019s \u2018big beautiful bill\u2019 \u2014 4 reasons you can\u2019t afford to waste time<\/a><\/p>\n Ferrari gambles on what customers and markets want <\/p>\n But Ferrari\u2019s competitors Lamborghini (9) and McLaren (10) have decided that a real engine roar and the vibration that goes with it \u2014 and the emotional reaction that comes with that \u2014 is exactly what customers want.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why both manufacturers have shelved plans for their own high-end EVs.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t buy a Lamborghini because you need one, but because you want to have a childhood dream fulfilled,\u201d Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann told Fortune.<\/p>\n Still Ferrari is betting on the Luce as more than a one-off, investing $230 million in a new factory in Italy to produce EVs alongside gas-engine vehicles. The factory opened in 2024.<\/p>\n Ferrari stands apart in that it has a cash reserve and a share price (11) its competitors don\u2019t, which gives it more of a runway to take a chance.<\/p>\n Investors, though, don\u2019t seem impressed with the Luce. Ferrari\u2019s stock was down almost 5% in mid-morning trading Tuesday.<\/p>\n You May Also Like <\/p>\n Join 250,000+ readers and get Moneywise\u2019s best stories and exclusive interviews first \u2014 clear insights curated and delivered weekly. Subscribe now.<\/a><\/p>\n Article Sources <\/p>\n We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our ethics and guidelines<\/a>.<\/p>\n Bloomberg (1)<\/a>; ESG Dive (2)<\/a>; Autoblog (3)<\/a>; Electrek (4)<\/a>; New York Times (5)<\/a>; Wall Street Journal (6)<\/a>; Car and Driver (7)<\/a>; Top Gear (8)<\/a>; Fortune (9)<\/a>; The Drive (10)<\/a>; Google (11)<\/a><\/p>\n This article originally appeared on Moneywise.com<\/a> under the title: Luxury EVs from Porsche, Lamborghini and McLaren are floundering \u2014 Ferrari thinks its $640,000 ‘Luce’ will be different<\/a><\/p>\n This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ferrari is breaking a lot of new ground with the Luce. It\u2019s the luxury automaker\u2019s first car with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21181],"tags":[1644,7661,25697,25696,8406],"class_list":["post-24302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-porsche","tag-evs","tag-ferrari","tag-jason-barlow","tag-luce","tag-porsche"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}