OMFG: Ferrari Luce kicks off new EV era
Four electric motors, 1,050hp, active suspension, bespoke platform, 122kWh battery - Ferrari goes for broke...
Finally, after years of speculation, and three months after it confirmed the Luce name (not to mention revealing an interior created with the help of Sir Jony Ive), Ferrari’s first exclusively electric car is here. The bare facts are these: it outputs 1,050hp, will do 192mph flat out, 0-62mph in 2.5 seconds and 0-124mph in 6.8 seconds - and thanks to a 122kWh battery and super slippery body, it is expected to boast a range of around 330 miles, while weighing 2,260kg. Oh and it's set to cost around £450k in the UK. So you're not going to see one at every Ionity charging station - but if you do, you'll likely notice it.
Everything about the Luce is deliberately bold. It had to be, of course. By definition, Ferrari’s first-ever all-electric can only happen once. But it also had to be demonstrably and unarguably new: Ferrari’s efforts to ‘redefine the limits of what is possible’ have always been admirable (the development of its EV has apparently resulted in more than 60 new patents), but the Luce’s place in history - no matter whether it is ultimately a success or not - will be recalled for as long as there is a Ferrari to talk about. Which essentially means forever.
Consequently, we must dwell for a moment on the way it looks. Because in ten years (or five, perhaps?) when all the tech and fancy acronyms are old news, the way that Ferrari presented its ‘new chapter’ will continue to be picked over. The partnership with LoveFrom, Sir Jony Ive’s design agency, is itself an interesting move - an admission perhaps that Maranello felt like it needed some assistance with a model that would inevitably court controversy (perhaps some distance, too, depending on your reaction to its audacious design language).
Certainly there will be plenty of that for a car that exceeds even the enormous Purosangue in scale (it being 53mm longer at 5,026mm and very nearly 2m wide). It is 45mm lower, too, than the V12 SUV, yet this is also a five-door hatch that was very much intended to seat five - and, clearly, is quite unlike a Ferrari that has preceded it. According to its maker, the Luce is defined ‘by the glass house, an uncompromised, shell-like form’ - though apparently Mark Newson (Ive’s partner) prefers to call it a passenger cell, as distinct from the bodywork that appears to swoop away from it.
The guiding principle for the latter is aerodynamic efficiency - the Luce is said to have achieved the lowest drag coefficient in the history of Ferrari road cars. As you might expect, there is an entirely novel aluminium chassis underneath, it being a combination of hollow casting and extrusions, with the latter also featuring in the aluminium body. Thanks to the floor-mounted 800V battery’s use as a structural element, the platform is said to be more than 35 per cent stiffer than the Purosangue’s. Naturally, the centre of gravity is lower, as well - by 95mm - and to help improve NVH, the Luce gets Ferrari’s first elastically-mounted rear subframe.
The active suspension features double wishbones front and rear, with a new iteration of the Purosangue’s Multimatic TrueActive dampers said to deliver ‘the most comfortable Ferrari ever produced’. The 48V solution means there is no need for conventional anti-roll bars, and the Luce’s claimed 2,260kg kerb weight is distributed 47:53 front to back. There’s active rear steering, of course (expect the EV to turn much quicker than its V12 sibling), though Ferrari claims an unparalleled level of control at each wheel - unsurprising, when it has four electric motors to do its bidding via an integrated control unit.
Each motor, an evolution of the generation used in the F80, is assigned an individual wheel, though the sizes differ, with the larger 421hp iteration of permanent magnet synchronous units inevitably at the back, and smaller 143hp ones to the front (Ferrai claims 842hp and 285hp for its respective axles, though the maximum overall power is quoted as 1,050hp). In terms of torque, you’re looking at 730lb ft from the motors collectively, although the manufacturer claims many multiples of that number at the wheels (which, incidentally, are the largest ever fitted to a Ferrari at 23-inch x 9.5J and 24-inch x 11J.
Vectoring that torque in all kinds of clever ways is predictably at the heart of the Luce’s performance, which Ferrari says is divided into two main functions: a virtual diff on the rear axle (to ensure stability) and something called Ferrari Lateral Optimisation Wheeltorque (or FLOW, to manage cornering). Factor in Side Slip Control X (newly spruced for the Luce with additional controllers), and we’re told to expect startling new things from the combination dynamically.
In fact, it is claimed to be ‘a different kind of Ferrari’ in a way that ‘no ICE architecture could ever have achieved’. Practically speaking, this is evident in a five?position Manettino and three?position e?Manettino. While the drive modes of the former are familiar enough, the latter is divided into ‘Range’ (limiting power to 435hp, most of it from the rear); ‘Tour’ (up to 625hp, with active AWD); and ‘Performance’ (everything it's got to give).
Quite how long it will keep this up is determined by the new 630kg battery that Ferrari designs and builds itself, albeit with Korean-supplied cells. Total capacity is 122kWh and the Luce supports 350kW charging. It claims ‘record-breaking’ efficiency from the pack, and suggests the tech will be updatable over time. Its consumption under the WLTP cycle is yet to be homologated, though Ferrari seems confident in its 530km (or 330-mile) range estimation.
Additionally, the manufacturer has been innovative with its management of regenerative braking. You might have noticed the large shift paddles on the Luce’s steering column, but rather than using them for simulated gearshifts, they instead cycle through five stages of regen; the left to increase the car’s deceleration and limit the available power, and the right to reduce its effect while progressively permitting you more output. In other words, it helps make it about driver interaction, which will surely be key to the driving experience.
Ditto the noise, which Ferrari says is the result of an ‘authentic approach to sound’. Its decision to capture ‘the dynamic texture and vibration of the rotating components’ in the rear axle isn’t entirely unprecedented, though the way in which it filters, equalises and amplifies the resulting signal is presumably where the (patented) magic happens. At any rate, it requires both an internal and external amplification system, the latter making it audible outside the car. Which is something to look forward to.
Ferrari, it seems, is certainly excited to get people behind the wheel. “We have created a car that combines unique driving emotions with extraordinary performance, driving pleasure and comfort for the Ferraristi of today and tomorrow,” reckoned CEO, Benedetto Vigna. It will need to be all these things, of course, not just to ensure its status as a proper Ferrari in the eyes of the general public, but also to ensure that actual Ferrari buyers are prepared to part with more than half a million euros to own one. The Luce is expected to go on sale early next year. Expect to hear much, much more about it between now and then.
k. I can only assume they’ll lose a stack on each one they make and their solution is putting everyone off by making it look like this. Jesus.I like it, but I'm not sure it has any real Ferrari influence other than the circular rear light. To me it's more like the Polestar version of the Lotus Emeya. Looks tall as well, which suggests a skateboard chassis/battery configuration - I thought Ferrari might have gone for a spine to keep the seating position lower.
To add, Ferrari overall and their heritage and / or modern cars doesn't really do much for me, so I'm a bit indifferent to whether Enzo is turning in his grave or not.
Crazy money and I still wouldn't buy it even if I had the means.
EV's are great in the right situation, but not for staring longingly into your garage or for getting up early on a weekend to go for a blast for no reason other than fun. And, in my opinion, that is what a performance / supercar is for
In a sense I do admire Ferrari for actually trying something radically different for their first EV, but I'm not convinced they've stuck the landing. I like some of the ideas (and do think the interior is a great bit of design and far better than almost any other modern Ferrari) but it suffers from the classic EV curse of being too tall and ungainly. I guess we'll hear how well it drives in due course but it'll have to be pretty bloody revolutionary to be worth the extra money vs something like a Taycan.
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