Italian luxury sports car maker Ferrari chose Rome’s iconic Vela di Calatrava – Città dello Sport as the stage to unveil the fully electric Ferrari Luce – the brand’s first-ever EV; a launch that symbolises the brand’s ongoing journey of excellence and groundbreaking innovation.
Ferrari won its first ever victory in Rome in 1947, with the Ferrari 125 Swinning the Gran Premio di Roma at the Baths of Caracalla circuit. On that decisive day, driver Franco Cortese set in motion an unimaginable legend of success. Some 79 years later, Ferrari returns to unveil a project that reinforces its unwavering commitment to redefine the limits of what is possible.
The Ferrari Luce – it’s first-ever EV – marks the culmination of Maranello’s multi-energy strategy, announced at the 2022 Capital Markets Day and subsequently confirmed on various occasions. In accordance with the principle of technological neutrality, electrification is just one of the means available to Ferrari to expand its design potential in product architecture, performance, design and driving experience, without replacing existing engines.
“With Ferrari Luce, we are once again redefining the limits of what is possible,” said John Elkann, President of Ferrari.
“Today, we are not simply unveiling a new car, we are inaugurating a chapter that turns our vision into reality, strengthening Ferrari’s tradition of anticipating and shaping the future.
“Such a leap forward in product innovation could only have been achieved through process innovation; this is why we chose to embark on new collaborations, such as the one with LoveFrom for the design. And, as always, our research and engineering excellence have been placed at the service of driving emotions, without compromise. Rome, the symbolic location of our first victory, becomes the starting point for a Ferrari that lights up the future and opens new horizons.”
Deepening the Prancing Horse’s in-house expertise in electric technology opens new potential for performance and efficiency across the entire Ferrari ecosystem. This includes technology transfer between road cars and the 499P that triumphed in the last edition of the World Endurance Championship and the bold Ferrari Hypersail project, a unique laboratory of research and innovation. Ferrari Luce expands the Maranello marque’s expertise still further, opening up a new segment consistent with Maranello’s DNA of combining performance, engagement and versatility.
The Ferrari Luce name evokes clarity and direction. It lights the way towards the future and defines the intent to create a Ferrari 360°, not merely the ‘electric Ferrari’ but an entirely new Ferrari, designed for deeper engagement and performance, with a unique and recognisable character.
“We are convinced that a company demonstrates its leadership when it has the courage to dare and to take on the challenge of new technologies,” said Benedetto Vigna, CEO of Ferrari.
“Ferrari Luce was born precisely from this challenge, offering our unprecedented vision of electrification. Never before have we offered our clients such freedom of choice.
“In line with our belief in technological neutrality, we are the first in the world to combine fully electric, hybrid and combustion engine architectures for sports cars. We have not limited ourselves to innovation in powertrains; with Luce, we have launched a whole new segment in our range.
The Result of Over 60 New Ferrari Patents
“This model is the result of more than 60 of our new patents and lies at the heart of an ecosystem of collaborations with outstanding technology partners. We have created a car that combines unique driving emotions with extraordinary performance, driving pleasure and comfort for the Ferraristi of today and tomorrow.”
In keeping with tradition, Ferrari chose to engineer, develop and manufacture the main components in-house; from the electric engines to the battery pack, every element is created in Maranello to guarantee quality, control and uniqueness. In the future, Ferrari will provide assistance on all electric components, including batteries, in line with the Ferrari Forever philosophy.
The design of the Ferrari Luce was entrusted to LoveFrom, the design collective led by Sir Jony Iveand Marc Newson. Introducing a team from outside the Ferrari Design Studio led by Flavio Manzoniinvited a new perspective and cross-fertilisation, enabling a new design language to be introduced.
LoveFrom was given the creative freedom needed to define the design direction of the project from the outset, translating this design language into an authentic Ferrari experience. The electric power source, Ferrari-engineered engines and advanced drivetrain affords a radically new architecture that uniquely combines extraordinary Ferrari performance with the luxury of spaciousness.
Four Doors, Five Seats: A First for Ferrari
This architecture generously accommodates four doors and five seats, which is a first for the Prancing Horse (as transaxle configurations with a front-mid engine and a rear gearbox do not allow for a fifth seat). The interior is a celebration of hundreds of discrete products, each meticulously considered and treated with individual care. Together they create a single, clean volume, with forms simplified and rationalised in service of the driving experience. The exterior, interior and interface share a unified design language.
From a technical perspective, the Ferrari Luce is based on a bespoke platform with a dedicated chassis and engineering innovations in every single component. Technologies derived from Ferrari’s unrivalled experience in the world of motor racing made it possible to contain kerb weight at 2,260 kg, helping deliver best‑in‑class performance (0–100 km/h in 2.5 seconds, 0–200 km/h in 6.8 seconds, top speed over 310 km/h and maximum total power output of 1050 cv) and a range in excess of 530 km.
The car is powered by four electric engines, one per wheel, and is equipped with a high‑capacity 122 kWh battery, an active suspension system derived from the F80 and an independently steering rear axle. Within this framework of technological innovation, two concepts best encapsulate Ferrari Luce’s ambitious entry into the world of high‑performance electric sports cars: the control of each wheel’s motion in every direction and in any dynamic condition, and the authentic approach to sound.
Vehicle dynamics have been developed to exploit the unprecedented advantages of the electric architecture in terms of centre of gravity, inertia and freedom of control, allowing the Ferrari Luce to maintain dynamic behaviour that is always agile and natural. The driver manages the car via the e-Manettino, which modulates power and traction, and the iconic five-position Manettino equipped with logics that adapt to grip conditions.
The Debut of the Vehicle Control Unit
The Vehicle Control Unit (VCU) makes its debut on the Ferrari Luce. This control centre integrates powertrainand dynamics, updating targets 200 times per second and coordinating efficiency strategies with the brand-new Side Slip Control X.
The electric all-wheel drive is a first for a Ferrari. It allows the full potential of torque vectoring to always make the car precise and responsive, while the new torque shift engagementand extended regenerative braking deliver a progression of torque and engine braking worthy of a sports car.
The new Vehicle Control Unit (VCU), manages a three‑line network: 800 V (engines), 48 V (active suspension), and 12 V (auxiliaries). The VCU interprets driver inputs and component status, governing power delivery and energy recovery and updating actuation targets 200 times per second.
Furthermore, the innovation of the Ferrari Luce’s e‑Manettino ‘Range’ mode, results in a much lower consumption (around 15%) with the same smoothness of travel.
The Ferrari Luce marks a new chapter, yet one that continues its long history of uncompromising innovation, driving performance, and an engineering culture that seeks to redefine the limits of what is possible.
Design
The Ferrari Luce is the first electric Ferrari from the Maranello marque. Its design was approached in an unconventional way, intended to underline its uniqueness on a technological level as well – hence the idea of entrusting the project to a designer from outside the Ferrari Design Studio, headed by Flavio Manzoni.
The creative collective LoveFrom was brought on board and tasked with bringing an unconventional, multidisciplinary perspective and experience of the luxury sector to enable cross-fertilisation and inspire new design languages.
The Ferrari Luce has acquired such a specific identity precisely because the designers were given the freedom to conceive a disruptive yet coherent form. In tackling the development of the car, LoveFrom was, in fact, granted the philosophical and design autonomy needed to present a complete, global proposal, whose research would extend into fields beyond that of pure car design.
The guiding principle was simplification, with styling cues that recall closed forms and smooth, pure shapes. Subsequently, during the development phase, LoveFrom worked with the Ferrari Design Studio, refining the conceptin keeping with its original intent and ensuring that every solution was in line with Ferrari’s functional targets, architectural constraints, and the homologation requirements of a production road-going sports car.
Exterior
The electric power source enables a radically new architecture that generously accommodates four doors and five seats. This is the second four-door Ferrari, and the first with five seats. A defining visual characteristic of the Ferrari Luce is the unprecedented purity of the glass house. This uncompromised, shell-like form extends below the belt line to the extremes of the car. The front and rear aerodynamic wings, floating above and around the silhouette of the glass house, enable this uniquely pure and simple form.
Inside, the Luce feels substantially larger than it appears. The light and airy interior feels expansive, pure, and affords the empowerment and luxury of choice and flexibility. The interior is a celebration of hundreds of discrete products, each meticulously considered and treated with individual care. Together they create a single, clean volume, with forms simplified and rationalised in service of the driving experience. The exterior, interior and interface share a unified design language.
Interior
The Ferrari Luce interface is designed with clear organisational principles of input and output. Controls and displays are grouped functionally, with the most essential commands and feedback directly in front of the driver. Precision-engineered mechanical buttons, dials, toggles and switches are combined with multifunctional digital displays. Thousands of deeply considered details unite to create a singular driving experience, designed and engineered to be functional, intuitive, and thrilling to drive.
Audio System
The Ferrari Luce introduces a high-end, state-of-the-art audio system: 21 loudspeakers engineered and integrated for maximum acoustic performance (ribbon tweeters, sealed-box midrange units, woofers, a subwoofer in an ultra-rigid enclosure, an ultra-flat speaker headliner for a 3D experience and sealed-box surround speakers).
Processing is handled by the new proprietary Ferrari Audio Director software platform, which oversees all the vehicle’s audio streams, managing content, presets, functions, and equalisation to ensure the best experience in all driving conditions. The head unit integrates high-performance chips that enable best-in-class, tailor-made algorithms. Amplification is via 24 channels and 3000 W, with a dedicated high-power-density Class-D amplifier.
Ferrari is also introducing the exclusive Ferrari Audio Signature – a unique acoustic identity resulting from years of research and development: five presets(‘Studio’, ‘Concerto’, ‘Immersive’, ‘Opera and ‘Electronic’) and a ‘Solo’ mode to optimise the listening experience from every seat.
Aerodynamics
A preoccupation with aerodynamics shaped the fundamental architecture of the entire car. Surfaces have been refined to be smooth, continuous and uninterrupted.
Developing an extremely high‑performance yet highly user-friendly electric car posed a new challenge for the company, which set itself a series of very ambitious, interlinked objectives.
Among these are a new standard of ergonomics and passenger comfort for a Ferrari, the fastest possible battery charging speed (a major challenge from a cooling standpoint), and a long driving range, a key parameter for the Ferrari Luce. To maximise range, it was necessary to reduce the drag coefficient to a minimum, setting a new benchmark in the company’s history.
Thermal Management
Thermal management is crucial to ensuring energy efficiency, dynamic performance, driving emotion, and the reliability of the battery, axles, and active suspension, as well as cabin comfort. The system has been reimagined, engineered, and validated from scratch to achieve a simple, lightweight, and versatile architecture, with the awareness that in an electric car every single unit of energy must be managed with care.
Vehicle Dynamics
The Ferrari Luce was created free from the legacy or constraints of previous designs and has been designed entirely around electric technology.
The 800 V battery is integrated into the centre of the floorpan and positioned low down; thanks to this, combined with the short overhangs and compact axle layout, the car achieves a centre of gravity that is 95mm lower and a yaw moment of inertia that is 15% lower than that of the Ferrari Purosangue. This results in handling characteristics during direction changes equivalent to those of a car weighing around 400 kg less than its actual weight.
Electronic Controls
The car’s dynamic behaviour is managed by the highly acclaimed Side Slip Control system in its latest iteration, known as Side Slip Control X, which incorporates new dedicated controllers alongside established technologies such as Active Suspension Control (ASC) 3.0, Virtual Short Wheelbase (Passo Corto Virtuale – PCV) 3.0, Ferrari Dynamic Enhancer+ (FDE+), and ABS Evo.
The first all-wheel-drive electric Ferrari is equipped with four independent engines, two on each axle, and maximum freedom in distributing torque between the axles. Torque Vectoringis divided into two functions: the first is the virtual differential (vDiff) on the rear axle, which ensures straight-line tracking of the car and stability on the straight.
The second is Ferrari Lateral Optimisation Wheeltorque (FLOW), which is essentially torque vectoring, active on both axles. FLOW also intervenes when entering a corner, distributing negative torque to stabilise the car and optimise energy recovery.
Chassis
The tyres of the Ferrari Luce have been developed with the aim of reducing rolling resistance by 15% without compromising grip on dry and wet surfaces. A car that transmits smaller variations in load to the tyres has allowed Ferrari’s engineers to define new performance envelopes, combining efficiency and grip with no trade‑off in dynamic character.
In this context, together with Pirelli, Michelin, and Bridgestone, a complete range has been developed, consisting of two dry‑weather tyres, two winter tyres, and one runflat, all optimised to make the most of the electric all‑wheel drive and torque vectoring strategies. The result is a direct contribution to range, stability, and the car’s natural feel, with progressive feedback that the driver can read immediately.
Sound
Developing the sound of the first electric Ferrari has been one of the most fascinating and complex challenges in the recent history of the Prancing Horse. The journey, spanning five years of work and 40,000 km of dedicated track testing, led the company to adopt a revolutionary method, used to achieve a balanced synthesis between the sound of the powertrain and an unprecedented level of acoustic and vibrational comfort.
The powertrain sound is captured by a sensor that allows the existing sound, which travels through the solid material of the axles, to be amplified and reach the cabin in a similar way to how an electric guitar’s amplifier works. Electric technology has then been leveraged so that the hallmark traits of acoustic and vibrational comfort are maximised through multiple technical solutions integrated in an innovative way.
NVH
Considerable attention has been devoted to enhancing vibration and acoustic comfort, due to the absence of noise-masking sources that are present in the case of internal combustion engines. This makes it possible to present the most comfortable Ferrari ever, while at the same time preserving the brand’s extraordinary handling characteristics.
The new electric platform has made it possible to optimise the distribution of mass and stiffness in order to maximise ride comfort, whilst enhancing the contribution of the active suspension and its control systems.
Powertrain
The powertrain of the Ferrari Luce has been designed to combine performance, efficiency, and total control, bringing to a production car the know-how and processes gained over years of power unit development for racing. The electric engines are designed, tested and assembled in Maranello to maintain full control over quality and process, in keeping with Ferrari tradition.
Electric Engines
The technological choice fell on radial-flow permanent magnet synchronous engines, derived from those used in the F80 and drawing on expertise gained in Formula One and the WEC. Solutions such as this were previously typical of prototype or low-volume applications: Ferrari has scaled up their production whilst maintaining standards of excellence. The development of the engine system was supported by over 120,000 hours of R&D, more than 250 bench‑tested engines, and 9 patents.
Battery
The battery pack is fully designed, validated, and built in Maranello and is integrated into the floorpan, helping to lower the car’s centre of gravity. It consists of 210 cells connected in series and delivers a gross energy capacity of 122 kWh at 800 V. Peak discharge power is 830 kW, and it is possible to recharge 70 kWh in 20 minutes using a fast-charging station capable of delivering up to 350 kW.
Seven Years of Maintenance
The unrivalled quality standards achieved and the strong focus on customer care form the basis of Ferrari’s seven-year extended service, which is also available on the Ferrari Luce.
This Genuine Maintenance programme, applicable across the entire range, covers all routine maintenance work for the first seven years of the car’s life. The routine maintenance plan is an exclusive service for customers, who can be confident that their car’s performance and safety standards will remain unchanged over the years. This special service is also available to those purchasing a Ferrari that is not a first-registration vehicle.
The key advantages of the Genuine Maintenance programme include scheduled inspections (at intervals of 20,000 km or once a year, with no mileage limit), genuine spare parts, and thorough checks carried out using state-of-the-art diagnostic tools by qualified personnel trained directly at the Ferrari Training Centre in Maranello. This service is available in all markets and covers all Dealerships in the Official Network.
Ferrari Luce also benefits from a dedicated eight-year warranty covering key electric powertrain components (front and rear axles, battery and charging system).
* Features may vary from market to market.