Ferrari introduces the Luce EV and it’s a total disaster
- May 26
- 3 min read
Ferrari has spent nearly 80 years convincing people that internal combustion is romance. The noise. The vibration. The smell of fuel. The absurdity of a V12 screaming toward irrelevance while wearing hand-stitched leather with your butt on fire and 7” from the ground.
They baited buyers with “in order to buy” mandates like, “…we would be happy to order you a new Roma, should you take delivery of this beautiful SF90 first”
Allocations became sacred and threats of ‘flipping’ are met with a blacklist as long as an F1 circut. Then came Jony Ive. The robust design genius behind daily necessities like the iPhone, MacBook, iPad and other smartly designed Apple products. After leaving Apple with tens of millions, Ive started his own firm, LoveFrom and began working with Open Ai on transformative products we have yet to see or use. Then came associations with major brands such as Moncler, and Airbnb.
But the most significant effort has been largely in the background for Ferrari. Ive has worked on Ferrari’s last 4 releases giving them new and much needed driver interfaces and style slants, all while secretly coming up with the new, all-electric, Ferrari Luce: a five-seat, four-door, Jony Ive-designed experiment, straight from the oat milk isle at Whole Foods and that costs roughly $640,000. Reaction from parts of the market has been… confusion, horror, and in some cases, visible grief. Ferrari stock even dropped after the reveal.
Look, electric Ferraris were inevitable. Hybrids even warranted but regulations happen, markets change and wealthy buyers in Shanghai and Silicon Valley like batteries. Fine, we get it, but inevitable and desirable are not the same thing. The Luce looks awful. The lines are short, judgmental and non-descript. Nearly half of the car is glass and, in many ways, looks like the fledgling EV maker Polestar, but this one costs $600,000.00 more!
For Ferrari, a car maker that produced dreams, sex appeal, and posters in every upper middle class kids room, this iteration of an automobile looks like a slightly hunched Apple Watch with tires. Critics have compared elements of it to mass-market EVs (that is being kind). Some have said, “…it looks like a refreshed Prius” or “it gives off luxury appliance energy” or “the proportions are horrendous” Ouch.
Ferrari says it’s a bold new design language.
Somehow Ferrari took a company famous for loud engines and built a product people discuss using words like interface, ecosystem, and user experience. To help quell the initial sceptics, Ferrari has built in different levels of engine roar, or what the brand calls, “authentic mechanical sound amplification”. Ergonomic sensors and acoustic channels help amplify real vibrations and sounds from the motors, drivetrain, rear axle, battery system, and other moving components to somehow convince the driver that there is a beast under the hood.
While that part might turn off any basic enthusiast, to be fair, the numbers on performance are insane. Over 1,000 horsepower. Quad motors. Roughly 0–60 in under 2.5 seconds. Top speed around 190 mph and around 300+ miles of range. Objectively fast. Borderline ridiculous but by performance standards, it’s extraordinary.
Which almost makes this worse.
Because Ferrari appears to have engineered something technologically brilliant while accidentally stripping away part of the irrational emotional theater people pay Ferrari premiums for.
Nobody buys a Ferrari because it’s practical. Nobody spends over half a million dollars hoping for improved charging infrastructure. Ferrari insists the Luce remains emotional and even engineered ways to preserve sensory engagement. But simulated emotion could be dangerous territory. Synthetic engine sounds are the automotive equivalent of fake fireplace channels on YouTube. Warm? Maybe. Real? Not remotely.
Ferrari built its empire selling glorious flaws at extraordinary prices, and the new electric Ferrari may be the first time the company delivered something too polished, too careful and too designed, while accidentally leaving some soul in Maranello.
For $640,000, buyers probably expected a Ferrari.
Many seem to think they got the world’s fastest Apple product instead.
*Editors Note: We have reviewed and commented on many great cars, including Ferrari, and have always been honest and open with OUR opinions. This is from a purely personal asthetic standpoint from someone who has nothing but lust for Ferrari.
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