Ferrari’s foray into the electric vehicle segment has been met with significant criticism after the Italian marque unveiled its Luce EV on May 25.
The backlash was not just in the form of comments on social media posts. Ferrari shares fell over 6% after the Luce’s launch on Monday, highlighting a strong dislike of the brand’s direction.
Lamborghini was also on the path of launching EVs, but the brand dropped the idea and pursued the development of plug-in hybrid vehicles.
Considering the backlash Ferrari faced, Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann is glad that his company chose the hybrid route, which eventually worked out.
Ferrari’s Bold EV Move Met With Harsh Criticism
Ferrari’s unveiling of the Luce EV disappointed supercar enthusiasts greatly because what was revealed under the covers was a car that looked nothing like a supercar.
Not only that, the car won’t even sound like a supercar because electric motors power all four wheels, meaning no more fire-spitting exhaust or any of the internal combustion entertainment.
From the car’s design philosophy to the way it is powered, Ferrari followed an unconventional approach aimed at a new target market, but that didn’t go down well with purists and enthusiasts.
Guessing Headlights reported the reaction of Ferrari’s former president, Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, to the Luce, which went viral on social media. Notably, he was the brand’s president between 1991 and 2010, and was elected chairman of Fiat and Ferrari. He said:
“If I were to say what I really think, it would be unpleasant, so l prefer not to comment. I just hope someone removes the Prancing Horse from that car. We risk destroying a legend, which saddens me greatly. At least this is a car the Chinese won’t copy.” [Translated text]
Not only that, Ferrari’s shares dropped by over 6% when the markets opened after Luce’s official unveiling, nosediving to £250 ($336) in no time. Hours later, the value struck a low of £245 ($329).
The drop erased roughly £4 billion ($5.38 billion) in value overnight, pushing Ferrari’s valuation back to where it was about five days earlier.
Lamborghini Escapes the EV Wrath
Ferrari has introduced a performance EV costing roughly $640,000 at a time when several automakers, such as Porsche, Honda, and Ford, are scaling back their EV strategies due to a lack of sufficient demand.
While that does not necessarily mean the Luce EV would be a failure, it just shows that EV acceptance has not yet reached a point that automakers can rely on entirely for the long run.
Lamborghini, however, paused plans to introduce the all-electric Lanzador and the Urus EV, citing insufficient demand. The company said in March:
“Following extensive analysis and ongoing dialogue with dealers and customers, it became clear that the pace of adoption of pure BEV [battery electric vehicle] vehicles has slowed considerably, particularly within the luxury super sports segment, where demand remains very limited.”
Instead, Lamborghini confirmed that the Lanzador and Urus will continue to be hybrid setups like the rest of its cars.
Two days after the Luce’s unveiling, Winkelmann said Lamborghini’s decision to backtrack on EVs and move forward with hybrid vehicles had worked well. He told CNBC:
“Our decision to go from [traditional internal combustion engine] to plug-in was a very important one for us, and it worked out.”
However, he refused to comment on the Luce EV:
“We don’t speak about our competitors … but everybody has their own strategy.”
Winkelmann confirmed that due to a low acceptance of EVs, Lamborghini switched to hybrid cars. He said:
“By observing the market … we saw that the acceptance curve [of EVs] for our type of customers is not increasing, and that therefore we decided to move away from a full-electric car into a plug-in hybrid.”