Ferrari Luce (EV)

It’s finally here: meet the Ferrari Luce, Maranello’s first ever fully electric car

What were you expecting? Yeah, didn’t think so

This a proper ‘wow’ moment, and we don’t get many of those nowadays. Welcome, then, to the Ferrari Luce, the company’s first all-electric car and a genuine game-changer. What you were expecting? Didn’t think so.

Previous supercar superstar EVs have stuck to the established mid-engined typology, but buyers didn’t bite. Ferrari was never going to go that way and the world’s most famous car company didn’t get where it is today by shirking risk. In a genius move, they hired design agency LoveFrom to handle the exterior and interior execution: that’s headed by former Apple chief design officer, Sir Jonathan Ive. Creative types like to call this ‘contamination’; Ferrari describes it as an “unconventional, multidisciplinary perspective”. No kidding.

To recap: we’re talking four electric motors, one on each wheel, a power output of 1,035bhp, 0-62mph in 2.5 seconds, a 192mph top speed, and a range of circa 330 miles fully charged. It uses a 122kWh battery pack, has an 800V architecture, and weighs 2,260kg; not bad for a five metre-long EV.

On top of that, the focus here is on versatility and useability. Forget the means of propulsion, the Luce has room on-board for five and a hatchback. That and the need for an aerodynamically efficient body explains the Luce’s spaceship shape and unusual surface language. Plus the unprecedented way in which it was designed and developed. Luce, by the way, means ‘light’, as in ‘lighting the way forward’ or ‘see the light’.

“We are convinced that a company demonstrates its leadership when it has the courage to dare and to take on the challenge of new technologies,” Ferrari CEO, Benedetto Vigna, states. “[The Luce] is the result of more than 60 of our new patents and lies at the heart of an ecosystem of collaborations with outstanding technology partners.”

Ferrari did explore an F80-style EV, but decided that it was a philosophical dead-end, as the head of vehicle engineering, Matteo Lanzavecchia, explains. “If you have a mid-engined car and you remove the engine and fuel tank and replace them with a battery pack and electric motor, you’re not gaining anything in terms of centre of gravity or the moment of inertia.

"But by doing something bigger, we were able to deliver space for five people. The c of g is lower [95mm lower than the Purosangue’s] and we’ve improved the torsional rigidity by integrating the battery pack into the body. We’ve re-thought everything. As a result, 95 per cent of the components are new.”

 
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