The long-awaited Ferrari Luce has finally broken covers and it looks… interesting to say the least.
More than 6 years after the launch of the Porsche Taycan, Ferrari has now entered the pure electric 4-door market with an entry of its own – the Luce. Ferrari used the 79th anniversary of their first ever racing victory to unveil the Luce and this 5-seater finally shows what 60 new technical patents and an in-house-developed Ferrari electric powertrain system can do. The Luce also shows how Ferrari plans to stay relevant in this new generation of mobility.
Design & Aerodynamics
Let’s start with the way it looks. By now, most Ferrari fans know that the Luce was co-created with Sir Jony Ive’s and Marc Newson’s LoveFrom. Ive is known worldwide for his design influence on Apple products throughout the 1990s and up until 2019. His oversight birthed products that have defined entire categories: from Macs, to Airpods, to iPhones, to iPads and to some controversial products in between that the world has collectively chosen to forget.
It’s interesting that Ferrari decided to start their own Design Studio only to get external help with their first EV. Perhaps the brand clout of Sir Jony Ive is part of the marketing effort, as there are just too many high performance EVs out there today. Ferrari wanted to craft something iconic, even if that meant breaking a few automotive design conventions.
One of the few places where the Luce sticks to conventions is with the ‘bigger is better’ narrative. They’ve stuck on the largest staggered wheels on any production Ferrari here: 23″ in front and 24″ behind. The Luce also has the lowest drag of any Ferrari production model ever. Beyond that, they’ve integrated floating aero wings, disappearing lights that recede into the body surfacing when turned off and the Luce also gets Ferrari’s first-ever active grilles that block off radiators when cooling isn’t needed.
Performance & Technical Specifications
From a technical standpoint, it’s not often EVs come with more than 2 motors. In the case of the Luce, we get 4 – one for each wheel. They’re capable of a combined output of 1050CV at peak, allowing the Luce to accelerate from 0-100km/h in just 2.5 seconds, and from 0-200km/h in just 6.8 seconds. The Luce has a top speed of 310km/h and has a driving range of 530km in fair weather. Ferrari reached out to Korea’s SK on for high energy dense batteries and co-developed a 122kWh structural battery pack. The Luce supports 350kW DC fast charging, allowing for 70kWh energy recovery in just 20 minutes under max charging load. All this energy and power and the Luce weights 2260kg – heavy for a performance car, but light for an EV with a battery this large. The chassis is all aluminium with thin walled hollow castings built into the design.
Interior, Interface & Audio
The interior is the area where Sir Jony Ive most obviously left his mark.
You’ve got a quad-screen cabin with softly rounded bezels, the driver instrument cluster is mounted directly to the steering assembly, even the physical key uses an E Ink display covered with Gorolla Glass to prevent scratches.
The cabin also features analogue physical switches made of 100% recycled anodized aluminium.
The Luce features 21 speakers and 24-channel audio running on Ferrari Audio Director software.
Dynamics, Sound & NVH (Noise, Vibration, Harshness)
Not only does every wheel features its own electric motor, each wheel is independently controlling its own traction/regeneration, steering angle and vertical suspension movement in real time. Ferrari have developed a simulated gear shift feel called ‘Torque Shift Engagement’, which is paddle-operated. The ‘simulated’ sound pumped through the speakers isn’t simulated at all, rather it’s the mechanical vibrations from the axles that have been amplified and filtered like an electric guitar through an amplifier. The interior features Ferrari’s first elastically-mounted subframe and internal steering column mass damper to filter out harshness.
It’s too bad Ferrari took so long to develop the Luce. If was launched this time last year there would be a chance for a few lucky buyers to squeeze an import tax and excise duty free fully-imported order in.
We’re sure Ferrari would have made a killing on it here. Compared to other rivals, the quad motor, relatively good rigidity to weight ratio, innovative sound concept and use of analogue controls make the Ferrari Luce stand out.
