A Strange New Shape
Ferrari dropped its first electric car on the world yesterday. They call it the Luce. It is scheduled for 2027 but the reveal is happening now. The thing that grabs you first is that it does not look like a Ferrari.
Not in the way we expect anyway.
The house of Maranello handed the pen to LoveFrom. You know those names? Jony Ive. Marc Newson. The guys who shaped the iPhone and the AirTag aesthetic. They got a clean sheet of paper and drew a box that is 197.9 inches long. Two inches longer than the Purosangwe but lower by about the same amount. It sits forward in the aluminum body. The doors open from the middle. The windshield wipers stick up like antennae against the A-pillar when they are done wiping.
It is the quietest Ferrari ever.
Well maybe not quiet yet. The aerodynamics are the star here. They claim it has the lowest drag coefficient of any roadgoing Ferrari in history. How? By using tunnel-like spoilers at the front and rear and hiding the three heat exchangers behind active shutters. The lights glow out of dark glass. It looks less like a horse and more like a futuristic submarine.
“The sound has been one of the busiest challenges with this car.” – Gianmaria Fulgenzi
The Cabin
Five seats. For Ferrari that is a new word.
The Luce is their first five-seater. No central tunnel to trip over since there is no engine in the middle eating space. The trunk is under the rear liftgate and it is the biggest Ferrari trunk ever. Good news if you buy golf clubs.
The inside feels surprisingly restrained. Most EVs are glowing black voids of touchscreens. Not this. It uses OLEDs yes but it also uses real metal rings. Three of them. The cluster is digital pretending to be analog. The middle dial shows speed and charge. The left one replaced the tachometer. Now it shows how much power is left and how much regen is kicking back. The right dial you configure yourself. They move with the steering column.
A pivot screen sits in the center. It can turn toward you or your passenger. Physical buttons sit beside it. Finally some tactile feedback. The Purosangque touchpads are gone. In their place are dials. The famous Manettino dials are back. One for standard modes one new electronic version for the powertrain.
Two massive paddles behind the wheel. Not for gears though. The left one adjusts regeneration from five levels. The right one dumps torque into the wheels in five steps. It tries to mimic the feel of downshifting and upshifting. You pull left to brake with electricity into a corner. You pull right to unleash force on exit. A digital light blinks when it is time to “upshift.” It feels involved. Even if the mechanics are silent.
The Power
It makes noise though. They wanted it to.
Ferrari did not just plug a V12 sample into the speakers. They built a system to capture the whine of the rear axle internals and amplify it. Patent pending. You get different soundtracks depending on the mode. Perfo mode screams the loudest. Range mode goes quiet. The car even blasts the noise outside for pedestrians and other cars. It is artificial. It is engineered. But it is not fake recording. It is actual mechanical noise processed into a song.
The guts are pure electricity. Four synchronous permanent-magnet motors. Heavily rear biased. The front two push 282 horsepower. The rear two scream 831. Put it together and you get 1035 horsepower.
The battery is 122-kWh. Gross. Ferrari designed and built it themselves. It is part of the chassis structure. It runs on an 800-vol architecture. It charges fast. Up to 350 kilowatts. That is blistering. You get roughly 280 miles of range under EPA estimates. WLTP says 330 but we know the truth about European standards.
At nearly 5000 lbs curb weight the physics are tough. Yet they claim 0-62 mph in 2.5 seconds. Top speed is 193 mph if you engage launch control. You have to pull a handle on the ceiling. It optimizes traction control unlocks an extra 54 horsepower and turns the car into a rail shooter.
The Chassis
Big wheels. Bigger than anything on a previous road car.
The front tires sit on 23-inch rims. The rear on 24-inch rims. Staggered width. 9.5 inches wide up front. 11.0 at the back. They look turbine-style to cut drag by another 5%. You get four-wheel steering. The suspension is derived from the F80 supercar. Adaptive dampers tweak themselves constantly. Torque vectoring fights at both axles to keep this heavy thing planted. Brakes are 15.4-inch discs at the front. Massive.
The Cost
Here comes the painful part.
It hits Europe this year. Around 550,000 Euros. That translates to roughly $640,00 USD right now. It lands in America next spring 2027. U.S. prices are unknown. They will be higher. They are always higher.
Why buy an electric supercar?
Demand for these cars is shaky at best. Look around. Lamborghini just killed their EV plans. CEO Stephan Winkelman said interest was close to zero. McLaren is stalling. Aston Martin pushed their EV launch to 2030 from 2027. Everyone sees the trend shifting or maybe dying.
John Elkann wants to change the narrative. He says, “We are expanding what Ferrari can be not losing what Ferrari is.”
Expanding sounds safe. Safe words for a risky product.
The Luce looks cool. It drives fast. It has five seats and a big trunk. But will the purists accept a car that sounds like processed axle noise and accelerates via software updates? We will know in 2027. Until then we can only guess.
Is this the future or a detour?
Maybe just a detour.
