Ferrari’s first electric car, the Luce, arrived to an unusual reception. When the Italian marque unveiled the glass-roofed four-door in May, social media quickly compared it to a computer mouse, a dishwasher, and even a microwave. Some fans treated it as an elaborate joke. A former Ferrari chairman went further, urging the company to remove the prancing horse emblem rather than risk what he called the destruction of a myth.
From mockery to a waiting list
Months later, the mockery has not translated into weak demand. Chief executive Benedetto Vigna told analysts during Ferrari’s third-quarter earnings call that every Luce the company plans to deliver in 2027 is already spoken for. The car carries a starting price of roughly $560,800, yet wealthy buyers are committing before they have even sat behind the wheel. Client test drives are not scheduled until early next year.
“All the Luces that we plan to sell next year, basically, are all allocated, so if someone comes, he has to wait one year to get the cars,” Vigna said. He did not disclose how many vehicles that represents.
A radical break from tradition
The Luce is a departure from Ferrari’s familiar design language. Its proportions include larger wheels, softer rounded surfaces, and four doors, none of which fit the low-slung two-door silhouette that has defined the brand for decades. The unusual shape is what invited the Magic Mouse comparisons and unsettled some investors. Ferrari’s stock dropped as much as 8 percent on the day of the reveal.
Rella Suskin, an equity analyst at Morningstar, wrote at the time that Ferrari’s design identity underpins its scarcity, pricing power, and aspirational appeal. The Luce’s exterior, she suggested, left investors underwhelmed even though the vehicle’s performance was expected to meet Ferrari standards.
Designed with help from Apple’s former design chief
Vigna has defended the shift. He brought in LoveFrom, the design studio founded by former Apple design leader Jony Ive, to shape the car. On a February earnings call, Vigna acknowledged the Luce would not win over everyone, but insisted it should be understood first as a Ferrari and only second as an electric vehicle.
"What I can tell you, I can guarantee you is that we will not sell this car to people that do not want the car," he said. "Because this is a car, Ferrari Luce, that is also electric. It's not an electric car."
Bucking the industry trend
Ferrari is pushing forward with electrification while several rivals pull back. Lamborghini has abandoned its plan to launch a fully electric car in 2028. Porsche, which released its Taycan electric sports car seven years before Ferrari entered the segment, is reportedly considering an end to Taycan production by 2030. Ferrari, by contrast, says the Luce, whose name means light in Italian, is illuminating the path ahead for the company.
Strong core business behind the gamble
The electric bet comes while Ferrari's traditional operations continue to grow. The company reported third-quarter revenue of 1.9 billion euros, up 7 percent from a year earlier, and operating profit of 563 million euros. A growing share of that performance comes from personalization. Buyers are paying more to customize their cars, and the company's chief financial officer said personalization revenue exceeded expectations, accounting for more than 21 percent of sales from cars and spare parts.
Ferrari is staging more than 50 local premieres and private viewings across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific to introduce the Luce in person. Vigna said those events express the car's uniqueness better than any digital experience could. The question now is whether the online ridicule fades once buyers experience the car on the road.
