Ferrari goes against the purists: Luce has to prove an electric supercar can still be a real Ferrari

Ferrari has unveiled the Luce, its first fully electric production car: 1,050 hp, a 122 kWh battery, 800V architecture and a €550,000 price. Why the reveal split fans and rattled investors.

Ferrari has finally done the thing people argued about for years: it revealed its first fully electric production car. The model is called Luce — «light» in Italian, though for fans of the marque it feels more like a flash that leaves your eyes adjusting for a while.

The newcomer was presented in Rome at the Vela di Calatrava. Ferrari explains the name as a symbol of clarity and direction, but the reaction was anything but calm. Some saw a new chapter for Maranello in the Luce, others a dangerous attempt to carry the V12 and V8 legend into a world of batteries, screens and software modes.

The Luce matters not only because it is electric. It is also Ferrari's first five-seater. Technically the marque already had a four-door model — the Purosangue — but more than four people had never been seated in a Ferrari from the factory before. In format the Luce is closer to a large electric fastback GT than to a classic supercar. Length is around 5 m, width roughly 2 m, and the seating position sits almost 5 cm lower than in the Purosangue.

Design became the central nerve of the whole story. Ferrari worked on the exterior together with LoveFrom, the studio of Jony Ive — the man responsible for the look of the original iPhone. The approach was unusual: engineers first shaped the body for aerodynamics and function, and the designers then «dressed» the finished technical base. The result is a drag coefficient of 0.254 Cd — the lowest of any road-going Ferrari, and achieved without active aerodynamics. Maranello dropped moving elements in favour of less mass and cleaner lines.

But the clean lines did not suit everyone. The body looks like an aluminium shell wrapped around a black cabin capsule, the wheels are the largest ever on a production Ferrari — 23 inches at the front and 24 at the rear — the rear lights are round, and even the wipers were patented: they create micro-vortices without disrupting the airflow. On social media the reaction instantly ran from delight to something close to fury. This is the kind of car that leaves no comfortable middle ground: you either accept it or reject it.

The interior, by contrast, proved far less divisive. Here Jony Ive's influence reads through the aluminium, the glass details, the screen graphics and the overall cleanliness of the interface. Yet Ferrari did not turn the car into a tablet on wheels. The front passenger has no separate display: the central screen rotates towards them when needed. With no transmission tunnel, the fifth rear passenger is not a symbolic sacrifice to the packaging, and the boot — 21.1 cubic feet, around 597 litres — is the largest in the marque's history.

The steering wheel is made from 100% recycled aluminium and nods to the three-spoke wooden Nardi wheels of 1950s and 60s Ferraris. It is an important detail: Ferrari is clearly trying to argue that the Luce does not abandon the past but translates it into another language. The only question is whether enthusiasts are ready to accept that language.

The engineering is more complex than the calm body suggests. Each wheel has its own electric motor, all developed and assembled by Ferrari in Maranello. The front motors spin up to 30,000 rpm, the rear ones to 25,500 rpm. These are permanent-magnet synchronous machines, grown from Ferrari's experience with the F80, Formula 1 and endurance racing. The rear motors produce 355 kW each, the front ones 105 kW each.

Total output, according to the manufacturer, is 1,050 hp. Ferrari does not always release it the same way across the different modes. In Range, 320 kW (430 hp) is available with rear-wheel drive and a 260 km/h speed limit. In Tour, 460 kW — 617 hp — with all-wheel drive. In Performance, 725 kW, around 986 hp, permanent all-wheel drive and a 310 km/h top speed. The full output of about 1,050 hp opens up only in Launch Control. The 0–100 km/h sprint is claimed at 2.5 seconds, 0–200 km/h at 6.8.

Ferrari did not imitate a gearbox, but it invented its own way to keep the driver's hands busy. The steering-wheel paddles do not handle shifts but Torque Shift Engagement. The right one changes the aggressiveness of the torque delivery across five steps; the left adjusts regeneration. In essence, it is an attempt to give the EV a mechanical ritual without a fake game of pretending to be a combustion engine.

The battery, too, does not simply lie in the floor. It is an 800-volt, 122 kWh pack that serves as a structural element of the chassis. It is designed and assembled in Maranello, with the modules developed together with SK On. This layout lowered the centre of gravity by almost 9.4 cm compared with the Purosangue. Ferrari claims the effect is comparable to making the car roughly 400 kg lighter. For a large five-seat EV that is critical: mass remains the chief enemy of any attempt to make an electric Ferrari feel alive.

Range is claimed at around 530 km on the WLTP cycle, with peak fast-charging power of 350 kW. Ferrari is not openly trying to beat everyone on range or charging. The company talks about something else: the goal was the driving character. That matters, because on raw numbers the Luce has stronger and cheaper rivals.

Set against the Porsche Taycan Turbo GT and the Lucid Air Sapphire, Ferrari ends up in a strange position. The Taycan Turbo GT puts out up to 1,092 hp, the Lucid Air Sapphire 1,234 hp. Both are technically quicker to 100 km/h, and both are far cheaper. The Luce starts at €550,000 — about $594,000 — and that is before options. For comparison, the Taycan Turbo GT costs roughly $232,000, the Lucid Air Sapphire around $250,500. Ferrari asks for more than double, yet does not promise to win a drag race.

This is exactly where the model's logic surfaces. The Luce does not sell a record — it sells a Ferrari. Porsche offers an engineering-precise electric GT, Lucid a blend of monstrous power and range, and Ferrari the marque, the exclusivity, the cabin, the behaviour and the sense of belonging to Maranello's first electric car. It is not a rational purchase. And perhaps that is exactly why it should work for its audience.

Sound is a separate question. Ferrari did not load a fake engine roar into the car. Through an accelerometer, the Luce reads the real vibrations of the motors and the rear of the chassis, then an algorithm strips out the unpleasant frequencies and amplifies the «musical» ones. The sound is audible inside and out, but it can be switched off entirely. It is a compromise between EV silence and Ferrari's old emotionality, without directly faking a V12.

The market reaction was harsh. After the presentation, Ferrari's shares in Milan fell almost 8%, while the New York-listed stock lost around 4.6%. The drop in market value was measured in billions. Over the past 12 months the Milan shares have slid more than 32%. Formally, part of this is the «buy the rumour, sell the news» effect: investors waited for the premiere and took their profit on the event. But the problem runs deeper.

Investors and fans fear the same thing, only in different words. Ferrari spent too long building a myth around sound, engine, mechanical connection and exclusivity. The EV threatens not sales as such, but identity. Morningstar strategist Michael Field noted that some enthusiasts are disappointed by the very fact that Ferrari has embraced the EV concept: for them it dilutes the essence of a supercar brand built on classic design and combustion power.

Ferrari's business, meanwhile, looks solid. First-quarter margins topped 39%, the analyst consensus remains moderately positive, €4.7 billion has been earmarked for electrification through 2030, and by the end of the decade fully electric models should account for about a fifth of sales. Roughly half of Ferrari's deliveries are already hybrids. So the share-price drop reflects fear of an era change more than weakness in this particular car.

The situation gets even more interesting against the backdrop of rivals. Lamborghini has pushed its first fully electric car back to 2029. Porsche is cutting EV plans amid weak demand for the Taycan and the electric Macan. Maserati has scrapped the electric version of the MC20. Ferrari, by contrast, is stepping forward at the very moment the others start braking. It is a risk, but also a window: if the Luce hits its audience, Ferrari becomes the first marque of the old supercar elite to actually build a production electric GT of this level.

The most important point is that the Luce does not look like a final destination. It is more of a technological bridgehead. The large five-seat body was chosen not only for customers but because of the battery's mass: current cell density does not yet allow a small, light electric Ferrari sports car without heavy compromises. But the architecture is already designed for future generations of cells. When energy density rises, the same philosophy could move into a true two-seat sports car.

That is exactly why the Luce cannot be judged solely as «an electric Ferrari for €550,000». It is a test: can Maranello carry the brand's emotion into a new era without losing old customers and while drawing in new ones? The company itself admits the reaction will be mixed. But Ferrari has rarely built cars that everyone liked.

Deliveries will begin in the fourth quarter of 2026, and orders are already open. The model is not billed as a limited halo project but is part of the core range. That matters more than it seems: Ferrari is not testing an EV as a cautious concept on the sidelines, it is placing it alongside its other production cars.

The Luce turned out bold, expensive and dangerous for its image. On the stopwatch it does not destroy Porsche and Lucid. On price it looks almost defiant. On design it has already split its audience. But technically it is one of the most ambitious electric platforms in the world: four of Ferrari's own motors, a structural battery, an 800-volt architecture, record aerodynamics for the marque and a new logic of torque control.

The final question is not whether the Luce will sell. Ferrari will most likely sell everything it builds. The question is different: will this car become the start of a new Ferrari line, or an expensive experiment the board gets scared to continue after the first scandals. Sometimes the riskiest Ferrari is not the fastest one, but the first to drive without the familiar sound from Maranello.