Ferrari launched its first all-electric car, the Ferrari Los, amid a wave of criticism this week, leaving the iconic brand reeling. After Monday’s launch, the stock fell 8 percent and did not rebound until Thursday, when CEO Benedetto Vigna defended Los, Saying customer interest has been “strong”.
What made the response unusually widespread outside automotive circles was a specific quality of the Los’s design failure, according to automotive design experts. Ferrari has always sold desire across classes, and people who have never been able to own one still have a connection with the brand, through the stickers, the racing and the simple fact that a Ferrari is unlike anything else on the road. However, Luce compromised the aesthetic while maintaining the $600,000-plus price tag, which angered not only her fans, but also the wider public.
The backlash even reached into Ferrari’s past. Luca di Montezemolo, the company’s longest-serving chairman of the post-Enzo era, reportedly told an Italian news agency that Lucy was taking a risk “destroy legend,He said he hoped Ferrari would remove the prancing horse badge from the car. Di Montezemolo ran the company from 1991 to 2014, and his public rebuke of Ferrari’s current product is unprecedented.
Paul Snydera veteran automotive designer with decades of experience at major manufacturers such as Ford and Honda, is currently Head of Transportation Design at Paul & Helen Farago in College of Creative Studies In Michigan, he called the Luce “shocking, because it doesn’t look like a Ferrari at all,” comparing its proportions to the student’s first exterior clay model, arguing that it misses the two essential visual readings of a Ferrari: silhouette and surface. “There’s no authenticity,” Snyder told the Observer.
Derek Jenkinssenior vice president of design and brand at Lucid Motors, whose Lucid Air has been compared to the new Ferrari Luce, made a similar distinction between the exterior and interior of the car. “The face of the car is unrecognizable. And that’s where the response comes from. It’s a mismatch with the brand,” Jenkins told the Observer. He was more favorable towards the cabin, describing the steering wheel as “both nostalgic and modern” and praising the switchgear and air vents as “thinking of the brand in a future context.”
Jony Ive’s design magic doesn’t translate to sports cars
Ferrari contracted with Jony Ive and Marc Newson’s design firm LoveFrom for the Luce. The interior, which was unveiled last year, received mixed reviews for its mix of analog and digital. However, the exterior design became the subject of internet memes. Ive is best known for designing the first Apple iPhone and working on the never-before-released Apple Car, while Newson is best known for designing the Apple Car. A concept car for Ford called the 021C.
But just because Ive and Newson can design beautiful, creative appliances and furniture doesn’t mean they can design a car. Industrial design and automotive design are two very distinct skill sets, Snyder points out.
Snyder said Ive’s work on Luce would have scored “two out of five” on external evaluation criteria such as originality, proportion and appeal at the college, equating the exterior design with a middle-of-the-road sorority project. “It doesn’t have any of the emotional factors or the sculptural factors or the dynamics and liveliness that a Ferrari should have,” he said.
“It really looks quite derivative of all the AI nonsense you hear about car design,” he continued, adding that if the aerodynamic wing above the windshield had been removed, the dramatic glass line that Ferrari created at great engineering cost might have been something truly new. Snyder also pointed out that if the interior design language were applied to a city car, or a smaller vehicle like the Cinquecento, it might resonate more positively with audiences, but in a Ferrari, that doesn’t make sense.
CEO Benedetto Vigna’s risky pivot
The interior restraint reflects a deliberate approach that came from the top of Ferrari. In an interview with Autocar India was published in AprilCEO Vigna Described as “weird” People assume that an electric car should have multiple screens, saying Ferrari’s approach with the Los is to combine tradition with innovation. The company opted for tactile buttons, dials, and switches rather than follow the industry trend toward touchscreen-dominated interiors.
Automotive analyst Stephanie Brinley At S&P Global Mobility argued that the market reaction is likely to be short-lived. Ferrari operates in low enough volumes that the polarizing car can find enough buyers to be commercially viable. “It’s not the first Ferrari that people have scratched their heads about,” she said. “You can fix the design with money and time.” The real risk, she said, is if the car sells poorly and Ferrari doesn’t pivot.
Vigna told a roundtable in Modena on Thursday that customer interest has been strong from affluent new buyers, a group the brand has been trying to recruit for some time, with Particular focus on China’s growing affluent classess, although luxury car manufacturers are struggling in the country due to the economic environment there and local competition. It remains to be seen whether Ferrari fans in China will accept the polarizing design.
Whether the market agrees with Ferrari’s design bet or with the rest of the global response, it will be answered through Ferrari orders, not online. Vigna noted that order numbers will be revealed in July when the company reports its second-quarter earnings.
