Ferrari is raking in orders for new $640K electric – Business News
Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna mentioned orders are already rolling in for the $640,000 Luce, the model’s first totally electric vehicle – regardless of an explosion of criticism attacking the design and exorbitant price tag.
“Look at the people writing to us, the people placing orders,” he mentioned Thursday at an occasion in Modena, Italy, as he sought to staunch the backlash. “Some are existing clients and others are new.”
Car fanatics have accused the Maranello, Italy-based sports activities car maker of breaking from its legacy with its first-ever five-seater, designed by former Apple exec Jony Ive’s firm, which can use new-age tech to copy the sound of its iconic engine growl. The journey was unveiled on Monday.
Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna mentioned orders are already rolling in for the model’s first totally electric vehicle. REUTERS
Critics have blasted the look of the Luce as a “monstrosity,” with one Reddit person evaluating it to a “wooden IKEA toy” – and several other others likening it to much-cheaper automobiles just like the Nissan Leaf, an electric SUV that begins round $30,000.
“The Ferrari Luce has nothing to do with electric cars you have seen from other players,” Vigna mentioned Thursday as he tried to squash the comparisons. “You have to see it and drive it to understand that it wasn’t copied – not the interiors, not the exterior, not the performance.”
“Innovation has to be paid for,” he added, defending the vehicle’s sky-high price tag. “If you don’t pay for innovation, you wrong the people working on it, the supply chain that makes it possible and the technology itself.”
Yet he additionally acknowledged that the company may need performed a function in the fervent backlash by drawing an excessive amount of consideration to the new electric vehicle with a dramatic, three-step reveal course of over a number of months.
“Maybe there was excessive exposure of the Luce,” Vigna mentioned. “Maybe some people understood that Ferrari was going only electric.”
“We will continue to make all types of powertrains. The final answer comes from clients.”
The Ferrari Luce is the model’s first totally electric vehicle and its first five-seater. by way of REUTERS
Ferrari Chairman John Elkann and Pope Leo XIV pose subsequent to the new Ferrari Luce. FERRARI PRESS OFFICE/AFP by way of Getty Images
The fury over Ferrari’s break from combustion-engine sports activities automobiles prolonged to the model’s former chairman, who might barely comprise his distaste for the new EV.
“I cannot say what I really think: I would harm Ferrari. We risk the destruction of a legend. So sorry,” former Ferrari chairman and president Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, who stepped down in 2014, informed Italian information company Askanews, as translated from Italian.
“Take the Prancing Horse off. At least the Chinese won’t copy this car,” he jabbed, referring to Ferrari’s brand.
Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini additionally slammed the new model in a scathing social media post this week.
The inside of the new Ferrari Luce. FERRARI PRESS OFFICE/AFP by way of Getty Images
“Electric, outrageously expensive (550 thousand euros!) and, from an aesthetic point of view, it speaks for itself,” he wrote, as translated from Italian.
“It looks like anything but a car from the Prancing Horse. And this is supposed to be ‘innovation?’ Who knows what Enzo Ferrari would say.”
Another social media person on Reddit predicted Ferrari might face backlash much like Jaguar’s failed rebrand in 2024, when the British luxurious auto giant debuted a business that includes males in skirts to announce its upcoming pivot to an all-electric fleet.
Ferrari’s first totally electric model comes as many luxurious rivals, together with Porsche and Lamborghini, are hitting the brakes on their EV ambitions.
Meanwhile, American automakers Ford and Stellantis have reportedly swallowed multi-billion-dollar costs associated to their reversal on EV manufacturing.
In 2024, Ferrari opened a $230 million manufacturing facility at its Italian headquarters to permit manufacturing of EVs alongside hybrids and conventional automobiles, so the new Luce didn’t come as a whole shock.
But electric automobiles have largely fallen out of favor amongst American prospects, who signify the world’s largest market for luxurious automobiles – whereas the new Luce lands amongst Ferrari’s most costly fashions ever.
