Ferrari Luce (EV)

Ferrari’s new $640K electric car already a massive fail — and looks just like a $30K Nissan: ‘Monstrosity’ - The New York Post​

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Ferrari shares plunged 5% Tuesday as car fanatics called the brand’s new $640,000 electric vehicle a “monstrosity” – comparing the design to much-cheaper rides and bashing the brand for using tech to replicate the iconic engine growl.

The “Luce,” named after the Italian word for light, is the Maranello, Italy-based sports car maker’s first-ever five-seater, designed by former Apple exec Jony Ive’s firm. Though the vehicle is equipped with half a ton of battery cells, it can hit 60 mph in around 2.5 seconds with a maximum speed of 192 mph.

But critics are questioning whether there is a customer for the new Luce, which breaks from the classic Ferrari look and boasts about its fully electric specs while most other automakers have backpedaled on their EV plans.

Some social media users pointed out that the new Luce – which will hit the market in the fourth quarter of the year at over half a million dollars – has an eerily similar design to the Nissan Leaf, an electric SUV that starts at roughly $30,000.

“I would have hoped the electric Ferrari would be the CHEAPEST in the lineup,” one Reddit user wrote in a heated forum with Ferrari fans. “But instead they did the opposite and made it look like a wooden Ikea toy.”

Even former Ferrari chairman and president Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, who stepped down in 2014, couldn’t hide 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,” he told Italian news agency Askanews, as translated from Italian. “Take the Prancing Horse off. At least the Chinese won’t copy this car.”

Another Reddit user wrote: “Yeah, you can buy several other fully decked out EV’s from brands with loads of EV experience for a quarter to a third of the price of this monstrosity. No one can convince me that the price of the badge on the front is worth 300k.”

Ferrari did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.

Another disappointed Ferrari fan compared the design to an “Alfa SZ that’s melted,” referring to Alfa Romeo’s limited-production 1989 sports car, adding that the Luce’s rear design “also makes it look like it’s giving birth to a smaller, slightly surprised looking car.”

Yet another Reddit-er predicted the Luce would sink Ferrari like Jaguar’s own failed rebrand in 2024, when the British luxury automaker debuted a commercial featuring men in skirts to announce its upcoming pivot to an all-electric fleet.

Ferrari’s electric ambitions come as no surprise after it opened a $230 million factory at its Italian headquarters in 2024 to allow production of EVs alongside hybrids and traditional vehicles.

But luxury rivals like Porsche and Lamborghini have recently hit the brakes on their EV plans, while American automakers Ford and Stellantis have reportedly swallowed multi-billion-dollar charges related to their reversal on EV production.

Ferrari Chairman John Elkann, who is also the chairman of Stellantis, is seemingly remaining positive about the Luce’s sales prospects.

“Our customers will choose. And I’m pretty sure, also from feedback that we’re getting, that we have existing customers who have combustions or hybrids who will also want to have electric,” Elkann said, according to the Wall Street Journal.
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nypost.com

Ferrari’s new $640K electric car already a massive fail — and looks just like a $30K Nissan: ‘Monstrosity’

Critics have compared the design to much-cheaper rides and bashed the brand for using tech to replicate the iconic engine growl.
nypost.com nypost.com
 
Meanwhile, back over at Audi's HQ in Ingolstadt, Germany...

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A global brand but local cars is Audi’s future, says CEO - Ars Technica​

We talk with Gernot Döllner, CEO of Audi AG, about where he’s taking the company.

One of the defining car industry trends of the early 21st century was the global, or world, car. Spread the development costs out across multiple markets, the thinking went, and efficiency takes care of the rest.

At least that was the idea; post-COVID, post-Ever Given, and in a world now erupting into trade wars and actual shooting wars, plans need to change.

“With Audi, we have to be flexible on a global perspective,” said Audi AG CEO Gernot Döllner, and the new Q9 is an example of that.

“It’s really the car where US requirements were at the center of the product development process. It’s dedicated to the US for the first time. Global launch, not Europe and then US. And for the Q9, it’s the US first and then it’s also dominated the volume we expect by the US American market. And then after the US, we will have the global launch of that car,” he said.

Yes, that means bigger and better cup holders that can handle the insulated mugs that everyone had to have, as we saw from the Q9’s interior. But it also means paying more attention to things like the JD Power surveys and so on. For example, for the Q9, “we rearranged the smart door panels we have in our A5, A6, and Q5 cars and came back to dedicated switches, optimized the interior cooling, and of course seating, the roof concept, all that with a key customer focus,” Döllner said.

“We definitely will be able to keep Europe and the US together when it comes to products. And we will do that by listening more carefully to US customers, because I learned that earlier in my career, that’s no problem in Europe to have a product that’s perfect for the US, but sometimes it’s the other way around a little bit difficult, which is absolutely alright,” he said.
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arstechnica.com

A global brand but local cars is Audi's future, says CEO

We talk with Gernot Döllner, CEO of Audi AG, about where he's taking the company.
arstechnica.com arstechnica.com
 
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