Ferrari misses the marque
Ferrari’s electric future arrives without its soul
A fascinating object — and an unconvincing Ferrari. In treating the car as a product rather than an object of desire, LoveFrom's Luce sacrifices the emotion that made the marque iconic
It must be a huge source of frustration for car designers that the few times their work cuts through to mainstream conversation, it is for the wrong reasons. Jaguar’s catastrophic rebrand, which ended up completely overshadowing the actual product, being the best recent example. Until now, that is. In what will likely go down as the defining “hold my beer” moment in modern automotive history, Ferrari has both shocked and appalled pretty much everyone with the Luce.
True, the very idea of an electric Ferrari was an anathema to brand fans. "I don't sell cars; I sell engines. The cars I throw in for free” as Enzo Ferrari famously put it. The great man also said the best Ferrari was always the next one. One cannot help but wonder what he would have made of LoveFrom’s addition to the canon. Scour the internet and you will find no shortage of commentators claiming they know.
Is the Luce the best Ferrari since the last one? Truth be told, it is such a radical departure in form and function that comparisons with the oeuvre are nonsensical. For starters, it seats five – a first for the brand – with the emphasis being on passenger comfort and state-of-the-art UX, rather than a pure driving experience. The focal point of the exterior design is the expansive glass house inserted into a single clean volume with minimal drama. Viewed in plan, it looks like a computer mouse or vacuum cleaner. The front face – an inscrutable Cylon-like mask – carries little relatable features while the three-quarter view appears offset or unbalanced. There was a period a few years ago when EV design sought to reset long-established truths about proportions: the Luce feels of that moment.
It is an efficient fusion of automotive and product design that feels perfectly in keeping with the history of the design studio. But this is not a smartphone or a watch. And there lies the chief issue. Had LoveFrom launched the Luce as a brand-agnostic provocation it would have been well received. But it isn’t. It is a Ferrari. Aside from the circular taillights, which recall the 360 Modena, among others, there are no further clues as to its identity aside from the famous prancing stallion badge, which is doing all the heavy lifting. Granted, the studio is on firmer territory on the interior, which mixes physical switchgear with screens and dials, but the merit of this work has been temporarily lost in the noise.
The Luce is a rare misstep and to paint it otherwise would be contrarian
Though billed as a collaboration, Car Design News understands this aspect was on the engineering rather than design side, with little input from the in-house Ferrari design team. Should this prove to be true, as mentioned on the CDN podcast this month, Manzoni walks away untarnished. Cynics might argue that the scene is set for him to swoop in and right the ship.
In commissioning a design studio, Ferrari has opened up the age-old debate about whether product designers can or even should design cars. Over the years, there have been some famous examples of architects and industrial designers trying their hand: Le Corbusier, Gio Ponti, Mario Bellini. Impressive names. But these were concepts – the kind of thought experiments intended to stimulate debate. Not ‘new chapters’ in design for heralded carmakers. Which only adds to the mystery as to why, when so much was riding on the project, Ferrari turned to a product design studio, albeit the most famous in the world. The total lack of interest in electric performance cars surely has something to do with it. What purpose would another EV hypercar serve? Nevertheless, the Luce is a rare misstep and to paint it otherwise would be contrarian.
Ultimately, what is lacking is emotion, a quality all Ferraris even the worse ones, convey. It lays bare the fundamental difference between automotive and product design. Cars are emotional objects in the way that very few products, particularly technical ones are not. Function is primary, and when the object is no longer functioning, it is discarded. How many of us hang on to an old iPhone once it has become obsolete? Ive and Newson’s work is clinical and no doubt the engineering underpinning the project will be world class. But it is sterile when compared to what has gone before. Even boring. And for Ferrari, that is a cardinal sin.
