Ferrari's first electric car sparks backlash after Rome debut

Ferrari’s first fully electric car arrived as a market signal as much as a product launch. The Luce, unveiled in Rome on May 25, was positioned by Ferrari as a new chapter for the brand: a five-seater, four-door EV meant to prove that electrification can coexist with the scarcity, performance and prestige that define Maranello.

Ferrari tied the reveal to its own history, staging it at the Vela di Calatrava - Città dello Sport on the same date the company won its first-ever victory in Rome in 1947 with the Ferrari 125 S driven by Franco Cortese. The company said the Luce marks the opening of a new naming strategy, with “Luce” meaning light or illumination in Italian, and framed the car as the culmination of the multi-energy strategy it outlined at its 2022 Capital Markets Day.

The numbers are unmistakably Ferrari. The Luce uses four electric motors, one at each wheel, and Ferrari says it produces 1,050 cv, reaches 100 km/h in 2.5 seconds, and tops out at 310 km/h. Its 122 kWh battery pack sits on an 800V architecture, with a claimed range of 530 km and a curb weight of 2,260 kg. Ferrari also says the car incorporates more than 60 new patents, and that the design was developed with LoveFrom, the studio founded by Jony Ive and Marc Newson, outside Ferrari’s traditional design center.

That technical ambition did not stop the backlash. The Luce was mocked online almost immediately, with critics fixating on its wedge-like styling and its departure from the usual two-seat Ferrari formula. The reaction also hit the stock market, where Ferrari shares fell after the reveal, with some coverage citing a drop of about 6% and more than $5 billion erased from the company’s value.

Ferrari is betting that it does not need mass approval to make the transition work. Benedetto Vigna said on May 28 that the Luce was attracting strong interest from both new and existing customers. That matters because more than 80% of the 14,000 people who bought a Ferrari last year already owned one, a reminder that the brand’s buyer base is unusually loyal and unusually wealthy.

The launch lands at a moment when regulation is forcing every legacy performance marque to confront the electric future. The European Union plans to phase out new internal-combustion car sales by 2035, and Ferrari’s answer is not to chase volume but to preserve desirability at the top end. At a starting price of about €550,000, or roughly $640,000, the Luce does not need broad cultural approval to succeed. It needs a small pool of buyers willing to pay for status, speed and exclusivity, and enough of them to prove that the electric transition can still feel like a Ferrari.