Let There Be Luce
Let's first address the iPhone in the room. When viewed from above, the Ferrari Luce looks a bit like that other product designed by Jony Ive. This is not helped by the fact that the main color variant that Ferrari seemingly chose to use for the roll-out is a light blue that looks decidedly like the blue model of the iPhone 5c – one of the iPhone designs most closely tied to Ive. But actually, Ferrari has a history with this shade of blue, 'Azzurro La Plata' the shade of blue used here.
Also aiding the comparison is the fact that the entire top of the Luce is apparently glass. Glass made by Corning, no less – yes, just like the the iPhone. If you're looking at this thing top-down from an airplane, it may appear to be an iPhone on wheels. The mythical Apple Car, at last.
Of course, this is not a flat smartphone and Ive and his LoveFrom team had many more surfaces to work with in designing their first car. I wrote about the interior a few months back when Ferrari unveiled that aspect but decided to hold back the big reveal – both the exterior and the price.
Now we know both and yeah, both are controversial. "Polarizing" as Ferrari puts it. Both of which are nicer ways of saying there's quite a bit of backlash at the moment. And while you might be able to discount the tweets given the leader of the most famous EV company also owns that network, it's hard to discount the stock price drop Ferrari is seeing at the moment. With the stock now down 6%+, they run the risk of falling out of the top spot when it comes to European automaker market cap. Yes, they're ahead of VW – but they used to be far ahead of the much larger car company (which also owns Lamborghini via Audi, FWIW).
Anyway, while 'Tesla Twitter' is making fun of the design, 'Design Twitter' seems more positive. I'm certainly in the latter camp. To me, the Luce looks like a futuristic car while still looking rather elegant. It looks like something you could imagine seeing on the road in 2030 or 2040.1 Or even 2054.2 The actual versions of those futures, not the flying car variants. LoveFrom kept the exterior decidedly simple, which obviously aides in a design being timeless. But it also can mean backlash right now. People demand to see things that look obviously new always and forever even if such designs tend to age poorly. Mix this with a move away from old, iconic design and you get... well, this reaction.
The Luce look is something that I assume most car people don't like – and presumably most Ferrari people don't in particular, as it doesn't particularly look like a Ferrari. But I'm neither really a car person nor a Ferrari person.3
I am a person interested in EVs, but have always found the look and feel of Tesla to be lacking. They can look fine from afar, certainly relative to many other cars on the road (except for the Cybertruck, which literally looks like a dumpster on wheels), but up close, you can see the seams – in some cases, quite literally. This is why I've long preferred the fit and finish of Rivian.
So it's interesting for me to read that Ferrari's goal with the Luce is not to appeal to current Ferrari owners, but instead to try to expand their market into the broader EV set. You could certainly argue that they're timing is awful here, given the trough of disillusionment in which the EV market currently finds itself thanks in no small part to the current US administration (how awkward for Elon Musk – though waging wars in oil-rich states may bring the market roaring back). And you could certainly wonder how much market expansion Ferrari is going to do with a €550,000 car (~$640,000). But if you're interested in an EV and looking for the highest-end variety, the Luce is now here for you.
We'll see how the Luce does in the market. Can it actually help Ferrari usher in the future or will it be more of an oddity – perhaps one that brought a lot of features forward, but didn't particularly sell well? Apple had a few of those products over the years, of course. Though I'm not sure the iPhone 5C falls into that camp. Personally, I loved it, but it was more or less a dud from a sales-perspective. A beautiful, bold, bomb. With a similar blue option.
One more thing: I do love this quote from the FT piece:
The electric model, which will be priced at €550,000 including taxes, will be profitable from the launch, which Vigna said was testimony to the fact that western manufacturers — not just Chinese rivals — can also succeed in building EVs.
I would hope that a car priced at €550k will be profitable from the start! Apple, eat your heart (and margins) out.
1 One wild stat: Ferrari has said they believe that something like 90% of the Ferraris ever made are still in operation. ↩
2 Which is the year in which Steven Spielberg's Minority Report is set. He famously summoned a group of technologists and futurists together back in the early 2000s when it was being made to imagine a realistic future 50 years from then. We're about halfway there now. And, well, the 2054 Lexus has some similarities with the Luce! ↩
3 Though you know who is? Apple SVP Eddy Cue who has long been on Ferrari's board... ↩