Ferrari unveils first electric car, critics slam design and stock falls

Ferrari’s first electric car arrived with a split-screen reception: a red-carpet unveiling in Rome and a fast-moving backlash that sent its stock down almost 8%. The Luce was presented on May 25, 2026, at the Vela di Calatrava - Città dello Sport, a venue Ferrari said was chosen to mark 79 years since the company’s first victory in Rome, when the Ferrari 125 S won the Gran Premio di Roma on May 25, 1947.

The car itself is as radical for Ferrari as the reaction around it. The Luce is the brand’s first fully electric model and its first five-seat car, a four-door sports car with four electric motors, a 122 kWh battery and 800V architecture. Ferrari claims 1,050 cv, 0-100 km/h in 2.5 seconds, a top speed of 310 km/h and a range of 530 km. The company also said the project relies on more than 60 new patents and was designed with Sir Jony Ive and Marc Newson’s LoveFrom, not Ferrari’s traditional design chief, Flavio Manzoni.

That choice matters because Ferrari is not simply selling a new powertrain. It is testing whether a brand built on sound, scarcity and racing mythology can move into the electric era without blurring the identity that makes its cars so desirable. The Luce is meant to widen Ferrari’s appeal to new customers while still serving existing Ferraristi, and its €550,000 price tag keeps it at the sharp end of the ultra-luxury market. But the online reaction showed how fragile that balance is: critics compared the styling to mass-market EVs, including the Nissan Leaf and some Kia models, a reminder that luxury buyers increasingly expect a design language that feels unmistakable on first sight.

The backlash also came against a harsher competitive backdrop. Chinese EV makers have raised expectations across the market on speed, technology and value, tightening the pressure on legacy brands to electrify without losing the emotional premium that supports their pricing. Ferrari’s own 2030 plan already reflects that tension. Announced in October 2025, it set a target mix of 40% internal-combustion cars, 40% hybrids and 20% fully electric vehicles by 2030, a retreat from an earlier goal of 40% EV sales. Ferrari said the revised mix was a response to client-centric considerations and shifting market conditions. Even so, the company’s leadership is pressing ahead: on May 28, 2026, chief executive Benedetto Vigna said the Luce was already drawing orders from both old and new customers, suggesting that, for now, the market for Ferrari mythology still includes an electric future.