Ferrari unveiled the Ferrari Luce electric car in May 2026 in the emblematic setting of the Vera di Calatrava in the Città dello Sport in Rome. (Ferrari Spa)
ferrari spa
Luxury car manufacturer stocks ferrari It plunged on Tuesday morning, shortly after the company launched its first all-electric vehicle.
The Maranello, Italy-based sports car manufacturer unveiled Luce, which means “light,” at a venue in Rome, explaining that the choice of name “evokes clarity and direction.”
The long-awaited model marks a departure from typical Ferrari aesthetics and comes at a time when other luxury car makers, most notably Porsche and Lamborghini, are scaling back their EV launch plans due to weak demand.
Ferrari shares fell 6.3% on Tuesday morning, paring some of their earlier losses. Milan-listed stocks have fallen nearly 27% in the past 12 months.
Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna said the launch of the Luce model was a “very important day” for the company, symbolizing the beginning of a “new chapter” in its history.
When asked if the company will be able to satisfy both new and traditional customers, Vigna told CNBC’s Charlotte Reid, “When you develop new technology, you always have to keep the word respect in mind.”
“Respect technology. If we develop new technology, we need to make sure that technology is properly represented in the design, so the design has to be different,” he added.
Vigna said the automaker also respects the different needs and desires of its customers, adding that existing customers are interested in Luce and the company welcomes new customers thanks to its fully electric model.
Ferrari’s first five-seater car, the Luce model reaches 60 mph in about 2.5 seconds and has a top speed of about 300 mph.
The Luce will be priced at approximately 550,000 euros (approximately $640,000), with customer deliveries expected to begin in the fourth quarter of this year.
Ferrari announced that it chose to develop and manufacture all components in-house in Maranello, but outsourced the design to LoveFrom, an agency founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive.
“The market has spoken”
Analysts attributed the stock’s reaction to a combination of “design haters” and the classic market adage “travel and arrive”, pointing to the strong rally in Ferrari’s stock price ahead of Monday’s launch.
“Ultimately, many fans are disappointed with Ferrari’s embrace of the EV concept because they believe it dilutes a supercar brand modeled on classic design and raw internal combustion engine power,” Michael Field, chief equity strategist at Morningstar, told CNBC in an email.
“From an investment perspective, many investors were concerned about developing EV models because the R&D costs are very high, putting a lot of pressure on brands to recover costs and potentially diluting the return on investment for the business,” Field said.
Anthony Dick, auto analyst at OddBHF, said the stock price reaction was “the sharpest reaction we’ve ever seen on car design, and the market has spoken.”
Reflecting on market concerns and risks to the business if Ferrari’s new model launches fail, Dick cited the impact on brand equity, noting that the Luce was “the biggest departure from the brand spirit I’ve ever seen” and that profitability could take a hit if the model really fails to sell.
Ferrari’s Vigna said the Luce model offers Ferrari drivers “the same feeling” as a typical model, but that the most important sounds in the car are those associated with the electric engine, and that “each engine has its own sound.”
“What’s important is the emotion it gives the driver,” he added.
