The Ferrari Luce has an interior designed by Apple’s Jony Ive – we take a look

It’s official. The first ever purely electric car to come from Maranello will be called the Ferrari Luce. ‘Elettrica’ was thought to be ‘a little bit of a limitation,’ according to Ferrari Chairman John Elkan, because this car is ‘more than just an electric Ferrari.’ We’ll find out whether he’s right later this year, but based on what we’ve seen so far it’s sure to make some noise in this segment (both literally and figuratively).

There’s no doubt this is the most highly anticipated release in Ferrari’s 78-year history. That’s not because it’s a model everyone is primed and desperate to buy though, it’s because the market is both fascinated and nervous to see how Maranello will approach an EV in equal measures. We already have a good idea after a first look at its powertrain last year, but now we’ve been to San Francisco to meet its interior and the people behind its design.

> Why Ferrari’s electric car might have the answer to EV depreciation

The basics are that the Luce is not a Rimac Nevera-rivalling hypercar, but instead the most usable Ferrari yet, also promising a more engaging driving experience than the Purosangue and GTC4 Lusso. Four doors, four seats and power to all four wheels are confirmed, but we’ll have to wait another few months to find out the exact body style that will accompany it all. While there are endless ties back to the existing combustion lineup, Ferrari says this is a car built for new customers. Whether or not it will carry that trademark Ferrari character we know and love is something we’ll have to wait until later this year to find out.

Ferrari Luce: interior

Flying to San Francisco for the reveal of an interior seems an extravagance (and it is), but one look at this design makes it very clear why Ferrari has gone to such lengths to detail every aspect of this project. Unlike every other cabin in its range, this has not been overseen by Flavio Manzoni, rather Jony Ive and his team from LoveFrom. Yes, the man who worked alongside Steve Jobs to make Apple the £3 trillion company it is today, leading the design of the iPhone, iPad, iMac and Apple Watch.

It’s ‘disruptive’ according to Ferrari and while this word is thrown around an awful lot, we’d have to agree on this occasion. The Luce’s interior design language bears almost no resemblance to the rest of the range, adopting an entirely new aesthetic clearly reminiscent of Jony Ive’s most iconic designs. There's a good reason for this, as Manzoni said: '...we shared some thoughts but then we left [LoveFrom] working for about six months in total autonomy, with a curiosity to know what they were conceiving.’ The final product is said to be ‘very close’ to the initial design the firm conceived and took just shy of five years to develop.

Jony Ive and Marc Newson are both avid Ferrari collectors, and Ive said he took particular inspiration from elements of his own 250 Europa for the design of this cabin. The bold three-spoke wheel takes clear notes from the Nardi wheel from that car, only with a clean, minimalist touch. The integration of dedicated pods mounted to the wheel for LoveFrom's take on elements like the Manettino brings modern functionality to the table.

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This retro-modern design might be divisive, but the concept behind the interface is one we've all been asking for. Jony Ive said: '...this idea that because the power source is electric, that the interface should be digital is nonsense. That makes no sense to me at all. And so one of the things that we felt very strongly about was we wanted to explore an interface that was physical and that was engaging.' The result is a cabin with more physical toggles, switches and dials than we've seen in decades, and each one has been meticulously engineered to feel unique.

Style is one thing, but the materials and finishing elevate this interior to well beyond just about anything else on the market. High grade anodised aluminium, leather and ultra-durable Corning glass are the primary materials you'll find, chosen for durability, premium feel and the ability to assemble it all with the incredible tolerances you’d only usually associate with an Apple product – the combination of its thin rim, cold-touch aluminium element and tactile machined paddles make the wheel a joy to hold. There are over 100 machined aluminium parts in the Luce's cabin and 40 glass components, compared to perhaps two or three in most cars.

Ive said he hates the way in which modern cars employ swathes of displays that project content right on the surface, and so LoveFrom has combined cutting-edge bespoke OLED digital panels from Samsung with real, physical convex glass lenses and physical needles to bring much-needed depth to the interface. The content displayed on these screens has also been developed from the ground-up by LoveFrom, and is designed to feel 'alive', responding to the tactile physical controls in a way that ensures you feel engaged with the car. The Luce's cabin has been designed with a 'human-centred' approach, and so the dash binnacle articulates with the wheel, and both the driver and passenger can rotate and tilt the central infotainment display with a dedicated aluminium handle.

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Every element is said to have been designed as if it were a dedicated product. The rails for the Daytona-inspired seats are entirely bespoke and finished to the same high standard as readily visible elements. The startup 'ceremony' in which an e-ink display within the bespoke glass key appears to transfer its colour to the gear selector took three quarters of a year to perfect. Look to the floating centre console and even the hinges within its cubby have been finished to the same standard.

Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna said '...this is not an electric car. This is a Ferrari that is also electric,' at the conclusion to the launch of the Luce's new interior. Whether or not this is accurate is something we'll have to wait a little longer to determine, but the interior is certainly a positive first impression.

Powertrain, 0-62mph and top speed

With over 60 patented pieces of technology in this car, it’s clear that Ferrari has taken this project very seriously. Developing everything from the battery to the motor systems completely in-house, and even producing many of these components itself too, there’s a clear distinction between this and just about every other EV we’ve seen on the market.

Its raw performance comes from its electrified axles, each featuring two fixed-ratio synchronous permanent magnet motors for a total of four. This not only makes the car all-wheel drive, but also allows for torque vectoring capabilities far beyond those of an EV with a single motor on each axle. The motor tech is derived from that seen on Ferrari’s existing plug-in hybrid cars, utilising trick F1-derived Halbach array rotors to extract the most power from the least weight.

While the in-house-developed inverter (now just 9kg in weight and integrated within the motor housing itself) is capable of supplying up to 300kW (c400bhp), the front-axle motors combine to produce c280bhp and c200lb ft of torque in running order, which when combined with the c840bhp output of the rear axle makes for a total of over 1000bhp.

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The likes of the SF90 feature a ‘front axle disconnect’ unit to disengage the front motors from the wheels when drive is not required, but this is an archaic system in comparison to the kind developed for this new EV. While the SF90’s unit was mounted separately, here it’s completely integrated to dramatically reduce size and weight. Select ‘Highway’ on the eManettino and the front motors will disconnect to make the car completely rear-wheel drive, maximising range as a result. In every other drivetrain mode the front-axle motor will be engaged, making the car all-wheel drive – with some very all-wheel-drive performance…

The 0-62mph sprint is quoted at 2.5sec, just two tenths behind the new plug-in-hybrid 849 Testarossa. Top speed is not quite as impressive at 193mph, putting it 12mph behind the 849 but a match for the pure-combustion Purosangue. 

With such extreme performance (and, this being an EV, weight) comes the need to shed speed just as quickly as you pile it on. Carbon-ceramic friction brakes have been re-engineered for this application in order to reduce their mass: 390mm, six-piston units at the front, 372mm, four-piston at the rear. With four powerful motors at its disposal though, this system is assisted by up to 0.68 g of deceleration from regenerative braking alone, putting up to 500kW of energy back into the battery at its peak. 

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Battery

Powering the 800V system behind it all is a huge 122kWh liquid-cooled battery pack that Ferrari claims is the most energy-dense of any current electric car, at 195Wh/kg. (To save you doing the maths, that gives the battery pack a total weight of 626kg.) Integrated into the chassis structure for increased rigidity, a total of 14 nickel manganese cobalt pouch cells from South Korean firm ’SK on’ are packed into each of the 15 modules, of which 85 per cent are located below the floor pan. The rest are fitted neatly under the rear seats, resulting in 47:53 weight distribution.

Unlike some manufacturers, Ferrari will assemble these battery packs itself. It may receive the cells from elsewhere, but the rest will be done in-house, with the cells laser welded (not screwed, in order to save weight) into each module, and those modules then dropped into the larger packs – all at Maranello. It’s this that helps make the system futureproof, with Ferrari in control of every step in the process.

Something that’s proven to be especially key to maintaining both performance and value in EVs is battery health, but time will always have the final say when it comes to batteries built using today's technology. To ensure this is a ‘forever’ car like the rest of Ferrari's range, the firm says it’s ensured that, despite the complex packaging, there has been no compromise made to the ability to service and/or replace components, battery included. Avoiding a ‘cell-to-pack’ system makes each module replaceable separately should any of the 15 experience unusual ageing or damage.

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Sound

As clever as all of this tech may be, sound is an important factor for any performance car, and especially one from Maranello. Ferrari has thought of this, and as opposed to replicating the sound of one of its V6, V8 or V12 engines, it’s amplifying the real sound of its electric powertrain instead. Mounted to the casing of the more powerful rear motor unit, an accelerometer picks up each and every vibration to translate this data into a sound precisely representative of powertrain response, in a similar fashion to an electric guitar pickup. So if you momentarily break traction, this will be represented in the sound you hear. This system is much more accurate than one synthesised based on throttle position or speed alone, and is designed to make the experience more authentic than in any other EV.

Ferrari won’t disclose all of the details about the system just yet, but it confirmed that unwanted sounds are filtered out to allow the best to come through. The company stopped short of saying it would pump this sound through the internal speaker system, but it’s fair to assume that this is the only way in which these sounds could make it into the cabin. Ferrari also hasn’t confirmed if the car will produce exterior sounds. 

While there’s just a single pickup point, the decision on its location on the rear motor casing was far from random. A team of 20 engineers (of which many are ‘musically sensitive’) tried and tested 50 different locations for the pickup before making their final decision. The sensor is so sensitive that it’s able to distinguish vibrations from the left and right motors respectively, offering further feedback on what each of the rear wheels is doing. Given there are numerous points of contact for the signals at play in this system, there’s bound to be some latency, but Ferrari told evo that while it couldn’t offer an exact latency number, it’s ’imperceptible’ to the human ear.

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Ferrari won’t disclose all of the details about the system just yet, but it confirmed that unwanted sounds are filtered out to allow the best to come through. The company stopped short of saying it would pump this sound through the internal speaker system, but it’s fair to assume that this is the only way in which these sounds could make it into the cabin. Ferrari also hasn’t confirmed if the car will produce exterior sounds. 

While there’s just a single pickup point, the decision on its location on the rear motor casing was far from random. A team of 20 engineers (of which many are ‘musically sensitive’) tried and tested 50 different locations for the pickup before making their final decision. The sensor is so sensitive that it’s able to distinguish vibrations from the left and right motors respectively, offering further feedback on what each of the rear wheels is doing. Given there are numerous points of contact for the signals at play in this system, there’s bound to be some latency, but Ferrari told evo that while it couldn’t offer an exact latency number, it’s ’imperceptible’ to the human ear.

In addition to this focus on sound, Ferrari has developed what it’s calling ‘Torque Shift Engagement’ to boost driver involvement further. Using a paddle mounted to the right-hand side of the steering wheel, the driver can sequentially select five levels of power to ‘deliver progressively strong acceleration’. Meanwhile a left-hand paddle provides a ‘downshift effect’ under deceleration, increasing the engine braking effect. Sounds a lot like the simulated gearbox we saw on the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N…

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Chassis and weight

It’s not just the basic motor technology that this car shares with its ICE relatives, as it also shares chassis components too. At its core is the same 48V Multimatic active suspension system first seen in the Purosangue and, more recently, the F80. The third-generation system is what lies beneath this car, now 2kg lighter per corner than in the Purosangue, but with even more capability.

Powering the system is a motor within each damper, but Ferrari has tweaked the thread of the central ‘screw’ for 20 per cent more pitch. The result of this change is that the system is even better than before at absorbing vertical movement, with precise control over lubrication thanks to the introduction of a thermocouple allowing the system to maintain the same lubricant viscosity no matter the external temperature.

As made clear by Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna, this is not a car built for YouTube drag races. While this system is more capable overall, it has been tweaked with comfort in mind for this car, leaning into its positioning as a more practical, usable model. NVH has been a very strong focus, to the point where Ferrari has even developed its very first suspended rear subframe for this application. 

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This is said to not only reduce transmission of motor and road noise, but also maintain the same rigidity as a solid-mounted unit. Clever tricks such as placing the inverters for each suspension tower within the subframe itself help improve NVH further, using their mass to dampen unwanted frequencies.

We’ll have to try it ourselves to know for sure, but Ferrari says this has all been achieved while maintaining the performance levels associated with one of its products. The claimed weight stands at a chunky 2300kg, although this is only 120kg more than a Purosangue (with fluids), despite the EV’s battery alone coming in at 626kg. 

Ferrari claims the car feels as if it weighs 450kg less from the driver’s seat – in other words 1850kg. Rear-wheel steering is likely to contribute to this, with the rear wheels able to turn up to 2.15 degrees in each direction, even toeing in at high speeds for stability.

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Exterior design

The reveal of its final exterior design will tell us much more, but Ferrari says this car will have a cab-forward design inspired by the company’s Berlinettas to put the driver much closer to the front axle than in any of its other models. The design change is so dramatic that the front crash structure has been reduced in size, and so the front suspension towers and motor assemblies are also now designed to absorb energy in the event of an impact.

What we do know about the model’s design is that it’s been finalised, with Vigna having already been behind the wheel. We also know that not only has the interior been designed by Jony Ive and Marc Newson’s firm LoveFrom, so too has the exterior.

Initial signs are certainly promising, and with this model set to coexist alongside combustion power, perhaps Maranello has positioned itself perfectly to tackle all ends of this segment. To find out more, we’ll have to wait until later this year when it’s revealed in full.

Ferrari Luce specs