There is no brand in the automotive industry with Ferrari’ s profi t margins or cachet. But is the Luce too daring?
Ferrari’ s futuristic risk
There is no brand in the automotive industry with Ferrari’ s profi t margins or cachet. But is the Luce too daring?
From its enormously successful core car business to the iconic F1 team and global brand extensions, Ferrari is a revenue powerhouse.
It sells fewer than 14,000 cars a year, but even at spectulatively high pricing, demand completely overwhelms available supply. And that business model is by design. Ferrari knows that exclusivity and dramatic design anchor its brand. It also has unrivalled global marketing leverage with the F1 team, which has only become more powerful as F1 has transformed into a digital media powerhouse.
But has Ferrari now gambled its unrivalled brand cachet, with a new model that’ s too different? Enzo Ferrari always prided himself on the simple product mission: Ferrari sold people amazing engines, and they got a car for free. The brand’ s V8 and V12 engines are legendary, and models with those engines command very strong residual values in the collector’ s market.
Ferrari’ s V6 PHEVs, have not performed as well in the collectable market. And that could foreshadow how risky the brand’ s new Luce is. It could be a case of too many firsts for Ferrari.
The Luce is Ferrari’ s first EV, its first five-seater passenger car, and one with a design language and packaging that’ s too unrelatable to other Ferraris. With its low production volumes, Ferrari was not at risk of cumulative fleet CO2 emissions penalties, which makes the decision to pursue the Luce project to completion so odd.
INSPIRED BY APPLE
The Luce is not targeting traditional Ferrari owners or brand followers. This is a Ferrari for emerging wealth in new global markets, like China. That ' s why the Luce looks so different: the design is by Jonny Mays, who pioneered the iPhone for Apple.
There is a global trend toward stealthy luxury. In fashion, brands with minimalist labelling are finding wealthy new-generation customers. The risk for Ferrari is that the Luce could damage its brand standing with the majority of its customers, who are willing to pay a huge premium for pre-facelift allocations of its rare V8 and V12 models.
Despite its controversial proportions and design, the Luce does have a few worthy engineering features. It features a radical split-deck front spoiler, which dramatically improves aerodynamics and is very daring and futuristic for a road car. Ferrari has also chosen a quadmotor electric powertrain, with four motors, one in each wheel, promising incredible torque vectoring and handling agility.
Tellingly, Ferrari’ s traditional rival, Lamborghini, recently cancelled its EV hypercar project after learning that there was absolutely no customer demand for it. Should Ferrari have done the same?
MAY 2026 35 WORDS IN ACTION