Seven years of development, a tightly controlled embargo in Rome, and a launch described as the biggest the automotive press has seen in recent memory: Ferrari's first purpose-built electric car has arrived. Called the Luce, it is a four-door, five-seat grand tourer built on a dedicated electric platform. Nothing was carried over from an existing model. The 120 kWh battery pack sits under the floor, feeding four independent motors, one per wheel, each managed by software rather than mechanical hardware. Range, charging speed, and full pricing details were still under embargo when this review was filmed, but the hardware confirmed so far puts it squarely at the bleeding edge of what EV engineering can deliver right now.
What makes the Luce unusual is who designed it. Jony Ive and Marc Newson, the designers responsible for the original iMac, the iPhone, and the Apple Watch, led the project through their studio Love From. Ferrari approached them with a single brief: build a four-door Ferrari. The electric drivetrain was not the starting point; it became the obvious conclusion once the design team realized how much freedom it gave them over interior packaging, weight distribution, and cabin architecture. The absence of a combustion drivetrain allowed a cabin described as exquisite, with physical buttons and dials that click with a precision more common in Swiss watches than family saloons. For a brand known for two-seat sports cars, building something that seats five adults and passes through design review at Maranello is no small achievement.
The deeper story here is about where EV technology actually comes from. The car traces a line from Silicon Valley's early battery experiments in the 2000s through Tesla's disruption of the traditional motor industry, and now back to a collaboration between a Silicon Valley design firm and one of Europe's most famous engineering houses. Four-motor setups with per-wheel torque control are not new to high-end EVs: Rivian's quad-motor R1S, the Lucid Air, and several Porsche Taycan variants all use similar architectures. What differs on the Luce is the application: a weight, suspension, and software system tuned for a car that must carry the Ferrari badge and the scrutiny that comes with it. The reviewer noted that the suspension design alone is beyond easy description, which from someone who has attended hundreds of car launches is not a throwaway observation.
The price, once confirmed, will almost certainly be stratospheric, and the reviewer was direct about that: this is not a car for most people who follow the EV market. But Ferrari launches have historically served as proving grounds for technology that filters down to volume brands within a few years. Per-wheel torque control, advanced solid-state-style battery management, and the kind of software-defined suspension being described here will eventually appear in cars that cost a fraction of the Luce. Trickle-down economics may be a myth, but trickle-down technology has a strong track record in this industry.
Bottom line: The Ferrari Luce is not a product review, it is a statement about where the EV market's ceiling now sits. A Silicon Valley design firm and an Italian racing house just built something that will set the reference point for electric grand tourers for the next decade. Whether the badge or the hardware drives the purchase, the engineering packed into this car will matter to everyone buying an EV in 2030, whether they know it yet or not.