by Wallace Wyss –
Ferrari has been playing a crafty game. For example requiring buyers of the bespoke modified SP cars to already own several rare Ferraris to see if they qualify.
When they debuted their first all electric vehicle, the 2027 Ferrari Luce — Italian for “light,” — they decided to combine forces with two successful electronic component designers to reach a new audience — the monied electronic world gurus. They went to legendary Apple alum Jony Ive (and later Marc Newson) for a four-door, five-seater SUV. Oh not to worry, it’s still fast. Like 0 to 60 mph in 2.5 seconds. And over 190 mph.
But some things don’t add up. Like the price of $640,000 for a car that looks like a Kia SUV? Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna admitted the target audience was not the present group of wealthy fans who have been carefully cultivated to embrace supercar style but instead a new high tech mover and shaker who has never thought of owning a Ferrari.
This tiny audience, say in Silicon Valley, will admire Ferrari’s chutzpah in building a car they might like. Not the mid-engined supercar that looks kinda like the ’65 LeMans winner. If this car succeeds, you can bet Ferrari will be catering more to this crowd.
True they may lose the traditional fan base. One clue is the $5 billion drop in their stock price. But on the other hand there’s more entrepreneurs coming along, and less of the old wanna-be-macho customers who could even tell you the difference between a 275GTB and 365GTB/4.
I personally see no relation between cell phone design and exotic car design but the key is that Silicon Valley has a lot of leaders who set trends. If that group starts buying Ferraris, Ferrari can cultivate it all the more (even the press list invited to the preview included reporters from the high tech world as much as traditional car reporters). Even that price–$640,000–is a status symbol. Ask any woman if she desires a Birkin bag, a purse that can cost hundreds of thousands.
Ferrari saw their present audience aging and feared the new money entrepreneurs were not clued in. So they made this effort. Time will tell if they went too far. It’s a risk, changing buyer audiences. Look at Jaguar, an automaker that tried to upgrade their buying base when they came out with a universally panned more expensive car. The car world turned against them.
Ferrari didn’t go all EV but as a member of the old audience (I owned a 365GTC/4 and 308GTS) I would say they are on very thin ice.
Let us know what you think in the Comments.
THE AUTHOR Wallace Wyss penned three Ferrari books and now paints oil portraits of his favorite Ferraris. For a list of URLs showing his work write photojournalistpro2@gmail.com
Photos compliments of Ferrari.
100 % correct. Ferrari and the designers chosen are trying to name brand the offering. I’m sorry to say, Ferrari is very likely to succeed. Enough so as to create an entire “line” along side the present cars. As an example see what Porsche did with their SUVs along continuing the 911 series.
The lack of comments tells the whole story.
Ferrari would be equally…or even more successful…if they had Martha Stewart or Oprah Winfrey or Niklas Edin designing a tub labeled Ferrari. Enzo would have had the decision makers shot on sight. This will be an epic failure and studied in business school along side Edsel, Kodak, Tucker, Pinto etc.