Luce, the electric car from Ferrari that has sunk the brand's shares in a few hours

Beauty is a subjective concept, especially in the field of automotive design. In fact, there are models that many people consider rather ugly (or not very attractive) like the Fiat Multipla, while others consider it a fantastic and ahead-of-its-time work. But Ferrari is not just a car manufacturer, its models are not just cars, and the reality is that the first electric car in Ferrari's history will go down in posterity as one of the few mistakes of the Maranello brand.Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, historic president of the brand, has not hesitated to describe the Luce as an “historic mistake capable of damaging the Ferrari myth”, while wishing that Ferrari “immediately withdraw the logo of the Cavallino Rampante from this electric car”. Montezemolo's opinion, shared by millions of brand followers worldwide, goes beyond an occasional whim against electric cars. The underlying problem lies in the concept and identity of the brand, as the Luce is not a sports coupe, but a kind of crossover halfway between a grand tourer and a four-door all-terrain vehicle with five seats and a 600-liter trunk capacity. An excellent technical sheet for a family-oriented, zero-emission grand tourer for Maserati, Aston Martin, or Porsche, among others, but not for a car that bears the Ferrari emblem on its front.An electric Ferrari: was it really necessary?

When a teacher asks a student to draw a car, the child often draws a sporty-looking red vehicle. In fact, Ferrari is the first car brand that many boys and girls learn about at school. Ferraris have historically been sports cars with V8 or V12 engines (i.e., 8 or 12 cylinders in a V) with high power and a characteristic sound, designed by Italian styling centers such as Pininfarina, Giugiaro, Bertone, or the Ferrari Design Center itself, among others.

The Luce breaks with all of this. Ferrari could have made a high-performance electric sports car, but instead it has decided to commission its design to the Americans Jony Ive and Marc Newson, formerly of Apple, who have created an unclassifiable model over five meters long and weighing 2.2 tons. The result is a model halfway between a crossover and a sedan, which has generated strong rejection among the brand's purists, and, more worryingly for Maranello, among Ferrari's shareholders.For the first time in the brand's history, Ferrari shares fell by around 8% immediately after the international presentation of the new model, and the passage of time has not served to calm investors, as after the initial shock, the shares of the mythical Italian brand, the jewel in the crown of the Agnelli empire, have continued to fall by around 6%.

On a mechanical level, this electric Ferrari promises a maximum power of 1,050 HP thanks to its four electric motors (one on each wheel), and its 800 V electric architecture allows it to charge at points of up to 350 kW, with a charging speed of up to 80% in just 20 minutes. The 122 kWh capacity batteries promise a range of 530 kilometers and a top speed, electronically limited, of 310 km/h, acceleration from 0 to 100 in 2.5 seconds and from 0 to 200 km/h in only 6.8 seconds. It is clear that performance is not the reason why this Luce, which will have a base price of €550,000, has generated strong controversy and is dragging down the brand's shares. A conceptual problem

The big problem with the Luce is precisely its positioning far from the Ferrari concept and its design that is not very suitable for a Maranello model. In fact, the Italian brand has received very few reservations for a model that costs more than half a million euros and that “looks like a Nissan Leaf” as reported by various sources during its presentation. In fairness, it seems complicated that any multimillionaire would decide to spend such a large amount of money on a car that evokes no emotion when seeing it, hearing it, and possibly, driving it. The typical Ferrari customer does not need space, a trunk, or five seats in the cabin, as they have other cars to get from point A to point B. A Ferrari is a special, unique, and different car, and the buyer of a Ferrari already has other models on the market to go to the office or pick up the children from school.  

To all this, we must add that Ferrari's main source of income is not car sales, but the merchandise revenue generated by the brand. There are millions of fans worldwide willing to buy models, hats, t-shirts, or any other item from their favorite car brand who feel disappointed with the new Luce. Obviously, they are not potential customers for the brand's cars, but they are part of the financial muscle that remains loyal to Ferrari.And the fact is that Ferrari, unlike Tesla or Apple, is not a stock-listed company that makes money. Ferrari's audience is more like a football team than a multinational brand. Surely we don't know anyone who defines themselves as a follower of Coca-Cola, Instagram, McDonald's, Zara or Nike, to give some examples of globally known brands. On the other hand, the color rosso corsa and the Cavallino Rampante are two elements that do identify millions of people around the world, despite the poor sporting results of the sports division in Formula 1. Time will tell if the brand's management has enough skill to overcome Ferrari's first major stumble in its 79-year history, and which its founder Enzo Ferrari would certainly have known how to avoid.