Ferrari's first electric car does not hand over all of its performance at once. Auto Focus was given an early run in a camouflaged Luce prototype on a private track, and the channel reports the car behaves like three different machines depending on which drive mode is selected. Range mode is rear-wheel drive only and capped at 320 kW. Tour mode brings the front axle in and lifts the ceiling to 460 kW. Performance mode releases the full 725 kW, which Auto Focus says covers 0 to 60 mph in 2.5 seconds. The video cites 530 km of range on a single charge. The footage sat with Ferrari for months before release, which is why the car in it is still wearing camouflage.
Drive modes that limit power are ordinary. Changing which wheels are driven is not. By making the efficiency setting rear-drive only, Ferrari has built an efficiency mode that changes the driven axle, not just the power ceiling, which is a more fundamental split than the eco settings on most electric cars. The 530 km figure Auto Focus quotes converts to roughly 330 miles, and that matches the claimed range Top Gear reported after its own separate drive, so two independent briefings are telling the same story. One point worth pricing in before you order: the video puts this car on 23 inch front and 24 inch rear wheels, wearing 265 and 315 section tires. Rubber that large is expensive to replace and rarely helps ride comfort, which pushes more of the work onto the suspension.
Most of what Auto Focus describes comes back to that suspension. The channel says this is Ferrari's third generation active system, following earlier versions in the company's SUV and the F80, and that it adjusts each corner 200 times per second. The presenter notes the car stays flat through banked sections and crests, and that stiffness can be set independently of the drive mode, so full power can be paired with the softest damping. The paddles behind the wheel do not change gears, because there are none, a system Ferrari explained in its own film earlier this month. Auto Focus reports five torque steps, with a blue marker above the tachometer showing a drop into a lower step and a yellow line indicating more torque is available above. Sound arrives only in performance mode. The single complaint raised is that the paddles are fixed to the steering column rather than the wheel, so they can be missed when your hands are crossed mid-corner.
Two smaller observations round out the drive. The presenter describes a very steep windscreen and a bonnet that falls away sharply, which he says leaves you looking almost directly over the nose with unusually good forward visibility for a car this fast. And in range mode the Luce coasts when you lift, rather than dragging on regen, so it behaves like a combustion car in traffic unless you pull a paddle to ask for retardation. Auto Focus repeatedly compares the car to the Lucid Air Sapphire, which the channel has previously called the best electric car it has driven, and rates the Luce alongside it on breadth of capability. The instrument layout gets a similar endorsement, with traction control, steering weight and power level all displayed permanently so the driver never has to go looking for the car's current state.
Bottom line: Ferrari has spent the whole reveal cycle defending how this car looks. The more useful question was always whether an electric one could be worth driving, and the early evidence says yes. What sells it is not the 725 kW. It is that the softest suspension setting still works with full power unlocked, which tells you the engineering team was thinking about real roads rather than lap records. Anyone shopping this bracket should drive it before writing it off on the basis of a screenshot, because the parts of this car you cannot photograph appear to be the good ones.
Commentary on a third-party video. Figures and claims are as presented in the source and have not been independently verified. Spotted an error? Tell us and we will correct it.