The world has waited with bated breath for Maranello’s first foray into electrification. We knew that it was taking a completely different direction for this car and the radically different Luce was certainly worth the wait. Maranello is not repeating itself with their first non-combustion car, with it’s unique design approach the car marks a strategic shift for the marque, targeting buyers who prioritize technology as much as performance. But rather than chart the new direction for the brand as a whole, the Luce is a new parallel path designed to attract a different Ferrari fan, a more tech-focused clientele, looking to buy into the brand’s mystique in a direction it’s never gone in before. It’s a car of many firsts for Ferrari. Their first EV, their first 5-door car and technically their first true 5-seater. The resulting design was sure to get Ferraristi talking…So let’s talk about it.
Designed for Emotion
The fresh design approach is lead by former Apple design chief Sir Jony Ive in collaboration with renown industrial designer Marc Newson out of their design collective LoveFrom. The designers started with a blank canvass and they have left no surface and detail on the car untouched. The Ferrari Luce is beautiful design, inside and out and it that reminds us that their cars do not merely transport you. They invite you to engage, to feel, to remember why the Prancing Horse still makes cars that make your heart beat faster.
The Luce is designed around a continuous “shell-like” shape with very few creases or character lines. It is flowing and uninterrupted in its form from the minimalist lighting upfront to the hatch-back like rear section that salutes classic elements like round tail lights into a clean futuristic tail. It is expressive in a way that salutes it’s function, and that is to cheat the wind and balance extreme aerodynamic efficiency with the spatial requirements of a true 5-seater in order to deliver on the thrilling promise of electric speed and torque. It is a tech-forward design sensibility that is clearly reflected inside and outside the vehicle.
Heritage in Hand
Let’s begin where every gentleman should: at the helm. The Luce’s steering wheel is a love letter to Ferrari’s past, reimagining the iconic 1950s three-spoke Nardi wheel in a lightweight, three-spoke aluminium form. The spokes are left deliberately exposed, showcasing the raw strength of their finish. But rather than surrender the rest of the cockpit to technology with glass slabs and haptic pads and touchscreens, Ferrari defies convention with its first bold step towards electrification. The Ferrari Luce is a rebellion of the senses. With a cockpit built on a mix of ritualized physical controls that invite your touch, your engagement, your respect. This is a cockpit where the electronic engineering that define supercars of our era has been seamlessly fused into the car so that it is not a barrier but rather an aid in the reconnection of man and machine. One satisfying click at a time.
But Ferrari has not abandoned screens; it has tamed them. Blending analog heritage into the digital displays, The driver’s instruments moves with the steering wheel, ensuring the perfect view the drivers preferred position. reach. The graphics on the displays are inspired by 1950s Veglia and Jaeger instruments and mimic analogue dials for instant legibility. There are touches of clean and highly legible aviation-style instrumentation here too. The goal? Reduce the driver’s cognitive load. Information at a glance, not a stare. And it doesn’t hurt that it’s beautifully designed.
Electrified-Horse Power
The Ferrari Luce features a quad-motor, all-wheel-drive powertrain that produces 1,050 horsepower (772 kW) and 990 Nm of torque. It launches from 0 to 100 km/h in roughly 2.5 seconds, utilizing a custom-engineered 122 kWh battery pack. Electric fun always comes at a weight penalty but the Luce wears it’s weight well thanks to active suspension, rear-wheel steering and advanced torque-vectoring designed to make the car much more agile than you would expect for a vehicle of it’s size and carrying capacity. While the car would easily do more, speed is limited to 310kph, plenty fast. And as you would expect, several drive modes and performance profiles give you the option to experience the car the way you want it.
The Luce fills a gap in Ferrari’s line-up. A spacious electric tourer that looks towards the future. Still emotional, still engaging. Perhaps less dramatic in Ferrari sound but it ushers in a more dramatic era of Ferrari technology.