It was fascinating to see the online backlash against Ferrari’s Luce; its first EV launched with typical elan recently. The Luce – meaning light in Italian – comes with a top speed of 310km/hour, a battery engine and a price tag of more than €500,000.
On the surface, it might be summed up as classical reaction from petrolheads – those who get a high from the roar of the spark-ignited internal combustion engine (ICE) and associated rapid acceleration, if not the fossil fumes. On deeper analysis, the vitriol went beyond this to aspects of design. Ultimately in my view, it was facing up to reality about a future where the EV is king – though that was not stated.
As a professional car designer and creative director, Felix Kilbertus, founder and creative director of The Ikari Institute in Turin, was more tempered. It wasn’t the abandoning of the ICE at the heart of Ferrari for decades, it was the inferior design.
In a letter to the FT (“Ferrari’s Luce – a bright idea with dim execution”), he observed good design requires both a compelling concept and the craft to realise it.
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“Like artists, designers may disagree about taste, but they generally recognise accomplished technique. The Luce’s technique is not convincing,” he wrote.
A stronger dialogue with automotive designers, he suggested, might have better translated its ambitious vision into a genuinely distinctive electric automobile, rather than implicitly proving the naysayers right.
Damningly, he added: “Its silhouette feels awkward, with symmetrical overhangs and a wheelbase that appears short relative to its visual mass. Elements such as the glasshouse-like canopy and under-bonnet air passage have been explored more successfully elsewhere, while many of the car’s identifying cues look backwards rather than forwards.”
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As an observer unfamiliar with nuances of car design, that is gobbledegook, but seems like a scathing (albeit delightful) critique. His comment on the strategic move was intriguing. He admired Ferrari chair John Elkann’s observation that the Luce represented “a huge risk, in part unnecessary”.
Kilbertus noted: “Unlike other apex brands [the most premium, highest-tier offering within a company’s product portfolio], Ferrari built its reputation by embracing bold ideas rather than measured evolution, and ambitious experimentation should be welcomed. The issue, however, is not with the ambition, but the execution.”
Even as sales in the United States slow, the rest of the world is picking up the slack, with more than a quarter of new car sales this year expected to be battery-powered
Wearing my future of the world hat, I venture to suggest Luce was pursued because if you look carefully on the distant horizon, there are few ICEs – another telling indication we are reaching a positive tipping on decarbonising transport.
While on a holiday at San Vito Lo Capo, Sicily, recently, there was another indication: an almost total absence of screechy, croaking or whining mopeds – an inevitability in Italy of the past. Instead, they have been replaced by every conceivable form of electric bicycle, motorbike and moped, being used by people of all ages. What joy for the ears!
Broaden the perspective a little, and evidence is clearcut. Even as sales in the United States slow, the rest of the world is picking up the slack, with more than a quarter of new car sales this year expected to be battery-powered – a trend repeated in Ireland.
If speed is your thing, EVs may soon become the quickest cars on Earth, as battery-powered cars of the upstart Formula E racing championship are making huge technological strides. Meanwhile, BYD is in talks to join Formula One to compete with legends such as Mercedes, McLaren and Ferrari. The Chinese EV and battery giant aims to increase brand awareness worldwide as it expands its global sales. But nobody enters F1 to languish at the bottom of standings. Initially, it could be an exciting battle of the ICEs and the EVs.
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But I’m not sure how one matter will play out. Will the distinct, piercing “weeee-ooowwww” when cars pass at up to 15,000 revs per minute no longer be a feature of F1?
While working as a student in the Netherlands in the early 1980s, I was lucky enough to go to the Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort. Bizarrely (in hindsight), we were given free Marlboro cigarettes on entering the venue – the tobacco company was the major sponsor of F1 at the time. But the roar of the cars was the most striking aspect for a grand prix novice. It was almost hypnotic, braking down before corners, accelerating rapidly and booming down the straight. It could be heard many miles away.
Will it be replaced by the purr of the EV version? Electric vehicles are so quiet, automakers have to add sounds to warn pedestrians and cyclists that EVs are approaching. Perhaps to retain its riveting sounds, that technology will have to be applied when EV racing cars come to dominate F1.
Kevin O’Sullivan is an environmental commentator and consultant
