Over the past weekend, it emerged that the first-ever Ferrari Luce had been sold at auction. During Monterey Car Week, the Ferrari Luce chassis No.0 rolled through the auction block and was promptly sold for an eye-watering $40 million. Yes, you did read that correctly.
The very first production models of some cars are sometimes auctioned off for big money. There is a collector’s value to these vehicles, and in many cases, these are auctioned off for charitable reasons. The same was true with this Ferrari Luce.
However, some will be surprised by just how much this particular vehicle has sold for. Even factoring in its value thanks to the license plate, it is a Ferrari Luce. A car that was criticized all over the world for its design, the fact that it is electric, and that it seemed to go against everything that makes Ferrari what they are.
Yet here we are, with this Luce fetching an eye-watering sum of money that is 36 times more than what the car will sell for at MSRP. Maybe, just maybe, the Ferrari Luce isn’t a car that everyone hates. Maybe more people than they care to admit like the new EV.
Why Do People Hate the Ferrari Luce?
It is fair to say that the backlash for the Ferrari Luce was widespread. Virtually the second it was revealed, the criticism started, with ex-Ferrari bossLuca di Montezemolo one of the car’s harshest critics. In fact, he even went as far as to say that the brand now risked destroying a legend.
“If I were to say what I really think, I’d be doing Ferrari a disservice. We risk destroying a legend, and I’m truly sorry about that. I hope they at least remove the prancing horse from that car,” di Montezemolo was quoted as saying by Italian news agency askanews. The ex-Ferrari boss expanded by saying “[Luce] is certainly a car that at least the Chinese won’t copy.”
By that, he meant the car was so ugly that not even China would want to make its own version of the EV. There was some support for the Luce, though. James May praised it for not being too retro or just bland. “I like it. I think it is interesting that Ferrari has done something very contemporary, very, very modern, which I think has been part of the definition of Ferrari styling over the years,” said the former Top Gear presenter.
Is This a Car Worth $40 Million?
We’ve already discussed who has bought this first-ever Luce EV in another article. Dr. Herbert ‘Herbie’ Wertheim is the man who has spent his cash on the car, with the proceeds from the sale going to the Ferrari Foundation’s educational programmes. For many, though, even if the funds raised by its auction are going to a very good cause, many will be asking whether that $40 million tag is actually a bit over the top for a car that many think is truly awful.
The fact is, the Luce isn’t a traditional Ferrari, and it isn’t trying to be. It is an electric car that just happens to be built by Ferrari, and naturally it will differ in how it looks because of that. Maranello is not going to turn everything it makes into something like the Luce, so the traditional design language won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. Clearly, some people like it, as Ferrari has already sold out of its initial allocation.