- Ferrari has unveiled the Luce, its first electric car
- It was partially designed by former Apple design guru Jony Ive
- The design has received mixed reactions online
We got our first look at the cockpit of the Ferrari Luce back in February, and now Ferrari’s highly-anticipated first all-electric vehicle has been revealed – accompanied by a rather mixed reaction from motorists.
As Motor1 reports, the car was designed in part by LoveFrom, the luxury design firm led by Jony Ive of iPhone and iPad fame. It packs in four electric motors and up to 1,050 horsepower and retails for €550,000 and up (about $640,000 / £475,000 / AU$895,000) – but it’s the design that’s attracted the most attention.
One commenter on Reddit has described the car as “giving off Waymo” vibes, while another says the design is “somehow worse than I could have ever imagined”. Another comment sums up the general reaction we’ve seen online: “Ferrari has completely and utterly lost its mind.”
The reaction from the rest of the industry has not been so positive either. It looks like a “mix between a Honda Accord EV and Tesla 3,” according to analyst Pierre-Olivier Essig of AIR Capital, Bloomberg reports. “We are lost in translation with Ferrari’s new strategy.”
It’s fair to say that the Luce’s aesthetic hasn’t met with universal approval, but Ferrari knows it doesn’t necessarily need to appeal to the masses on Reddit. The manufacturer sells less than 14,000 cars a year, and as long as enough people are taken with the charm of this new model, it will do just fine.
‘Multi-touch should not be in a car’
In an interview with Cleo Abram, Jony Ive and Ferrari’s chief designer Flavio Manzoni have gone into more detail about the thinking behind the design of the Luce. In particular, Ive talks about moving away from the multi-touch design of the Apple products he has designed, which can be seen on dashboards in large Tesla cars such as the
“Multi-touch shouldn’t be in a car, I think,” Ive says, while also saying it’s a “fabulous technology” that fits user interfaces on phones and tablets. “If you’re going to do basic things, of course, by definition, it requires that you’re not looking where you’re going, and you’re looking at a screen.”
There’s a central touchscreen in the Luce, but it’s fairly compact for its size and only requires a few taps — controlled by a handrail along the bottom. There are also plenty of dials and switches throughout the cockpit for more direct, tactile control of the car, with some nifty lighting effects attached.
This is a vehicle that can reach 100 kilometers (62 miles) per hour in 2.5 seconds with a top speed of more than 310 kilometers (193 miles) per hour. Range on a single charge is listed as 530 kilometers (329 miles). For those drivers taken with looks and specs, the first orders are now open.
“The obvious thing or certainly the easy, lazy thing to do would be to mimic what people are familiar with,” Ive adds. It’s certainly a divisive, bold design – which has had plenty of jibes directed at it – but let us know what you think in the comments below.
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