In case anyone was wondering what the Apple Car would have looked like inside, it would have been roughly this.
As an Apple Car™ it makes sense, but as a Ferrari it's incredibly soulless and oversimplified. This Ive design aesthetic (Dieter Rams' aesthetic really) is fine on consumer electronics where you want the device to disappear and give way to the display, but on something as emotional as a vehicle (Ferrari especially), this design falls flat.
I do hope some of the design details work their way through the industry (e.g. using glass instead of gloss black plastic, convex glass to add depth to digital gauges), but I hope the rest of it stays as a one-off experiment demonstrating the hubris and one-dimensionality of a top designer.
EVs have a weight issue that fundamentally constrains their overall design. It is really a tough engineering problem to try to shave weight off of everything, because you are starting out with a 700kg battery replacing a 400kg engine + transmission, so you are ~300kg in the hole, and need to remove 300 kg from the rest of the car. That's why they do crazy stuff like use the battery as part of the structural frame, to save on metal there. Every extra kilogram reduces range. Solid things are made hollow. Metal is replaced by plastic. Fabrics are thinner or replaced with lighter-weight engineered materials. Lots of things are removed. Physical buttons gone, flourishes gone, handles gone. Seats are made thinner and with less material. See how they brag about a simpler new steering wheel that is 400g lighter?
All of that and still they come up with a 2300 kg compact two row SUV.
So, if you are going to be redesigning everything anyway to try to get rid of as much weight as possible, why not hire a designer known for sparse, minimalistic, clean design? It makes sense. It may not be what Ferrari buyers want, but you can't really blame Ferrari for giving it a try. We'll see how well it sells.
Ferrari will sell all that they make. If you want to purchase one of the highly desirable low-volume models you can't just walk into a dealership and write a check. You first have to purchase a few of the high-volume models to earn enough "points" on their internal customer priority list. A lot of rich guys will buy a Luce just for that purpose, and then leave it in their garage or maybe drive it to the country club occasionally.
I think you are wrong on the "weight issue" regarding EV. ICE cars have a weight issue as they consume more gas depending on the weight, which is the case to a much lesser extent in BEV.
At high speed, aerodynamics become the main factor reducing range.
With urban stop and go traffic, regenerative braking lowers the weight's impact massively.
BMW's i3 was constructed with the same mistake: let’s reduce weight to gain range, which didn’t pay off. It added to the cost due to expensive composite materials, lesser to the range.
Manufacturers learned from BMW's mistake and build the body with conventional metal sheets.
Nevertheless reducing weight has its advantages: using less material saves expenses and helps driving dynamics.
Range is a minor factor.
I wonder what the speed/weight tradeoff is on a Ferrari though. Eg on a Bugatti they can put in a beast of an engine (heavy) because their buyers care only about power output and if it gets 8 miles to a gallon who cares.
On an electric sports car, where does the break lie between extra weight for a powerful battery and too much weight to make the car go vroom?
Side note: I wonder if, in 20 years, petrol cars will the preserve of the very rich and the very poor.
Weight doesn’t make all that much difference to EV range: aerodynamics are a much more important factor.
Handling and “sports car feel” are affected by weight, though, and this is the real reason that Ferrari would want to cut weight to a minimum on their EV.
Keep in mind that, especially for performance cars, the instant torque and low center of gravity (because those cells can go in the floor) really helps.
Yes, the added weight is bad for handling which is a shame especially in a car like this.
The weight savings aren't that big of a deal, they do that in every car and it's mostly marketing. But if you're one of those brands that can sell the same car, but use some fancy metals and such for a 50k markup, why would you not.
From what I've heard from auto engineers I know, using the battery as part of the structure is not really done. Transfering mechanical stresses to the battery is something you just do not do.
Additionally the battery must be protected in the event of the crash, so its casing must survive intact.
I mean, it's possible that some manufacturers might do it a little bit to put it on the marketing brochure, but the additional design headaches and safety concerns mean that there's just not that much to gain.
The inside of the Apple Car looked nothing like this - primarily because "driving" is the main activity the design of this Ferrari is intended to serve, and "driving" was not an activity that the Apple car intended to support.
It certainly looks like an Apple device. Ive's aesthetic is Apple's aesthetic, so if you hire Ive, that is what you are going to get.
I can see a car company who doesn't care about design stumbling into this outcome, but Ferrari doesn't seem like that kind of company. So the choice must have been intentional.
As Ferrari has been proving over the last few generations, they know how to make engines but Pininfarina knows how to design cars. I'm not even slightly surprised by the Luce.
Everything will undoubtedly feel nice/premium as a result of being metal and glass, but you spend more time looking at the entire interior than touching every part of it, so appearance is important.
There will undoubtedly be people that like or love it and there's nothing wrong with that. Design is rather subjective. Fortunately I'm not in the market for a $300,000+ EV made by Ferrari, so I don't have to lose sleep at night over buying this or not :)
I first thought that too, but if you take the time to scroll down a bit, you'll see that the instruments are actually three separate screens, and at least the center one has a mechanical needle. Also, the central control panel has lots of physical switches (Musk would hate it) and even a round instrument in the top right corner with mechanical hands, which can be either a clock, a stopwatch or (for whatever reason) a compass. So definitely not an iPad put in a holder.
This question's answer would require something more lecture length that dives into fundamentals of design with an equal amount of time spent on automotive design. No one has the time or care for something like that, so I'll try to give a high level answer.
Generally speaking, cars are not about simple designs/shapes. They, especially to enthusiasts, are viewed as something closer to art where care is taken to craft shapes and forms for both function and feel. This is amplified dramatically for Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini, etc..
Ive was clearly doing this design work for the Apple EV that never shipped. It followed Apple's historic design aesthetic (driven largely by him) of simplifying things as much as possible--using circles and squircles everywhere, removing as many unnecessary geometry as possible. That's fine for an Apple EV because that's their design aesthetic. That is, demonstrably, not Ferrari's design aesthetic. It's a jarring departure from decades of automotive design and, in my professional opinion, an exercise in hubris.
As we remember that design is largely subjective and that this is all my opinion, I will say that almost everything in the vehicle is overly simplified:
* Steering wheel: an attempt at modern retro, but they added two blobs (to keep the steering wheel simple) to house the dials and buttons instead of incorporating it in a sculpted, thoughtful way. Instead of putting the turn signals in those blobs (or elsewhere), they interrupted the simple steering wheel with a couple circles to act as the turn signals.
* Digital instrument cluster: it's an iPad that connects to the base of the steering wheel. Wasted space in the top corners. Convex glass is a really nice touch however. Gauges are strange to me (gas gauge for an EV, left dial is confusing at first glance, G-force gauge unnecessarily busy), but that can always be changed later so not worth waxing on about.
* The key: a small iPhone 4. It's not terrible, but it's rather uninspired and boring. Ferraris aren't supposed to be boring.
* Dashboard interface: another iPad, but with a Mac Pro handle on it. Might be very nice for moving it, but how often are you going to do that? Does it stick out far enough to act as a wrist-rest as mentioned in their video? The mechanical switches are a nice touch if the display/UI keeps up. The clock/compass/stopwatch in the top right is neat, but almost antithetical to the rest of the design--it's added complexity for the sake of complexity. I still like it though.
* Vents: these make sense to be simplified. I've never loved the number of flaps in most vehicles, but if you have kids you might have issues with toys/food getting lost inside if there's no mesh behind it.
* Seats are nice, but if you removed the Ferrari emblem would you know it's a Ferrari? Is there enough bolstering for spirited driving?
The shapes, iconography, etc. are all carried over from Apple devices. Cars, even in EV form, are not iPads and iPhones. Cars, particularly those like Ferraris, are supposed to be designed, sculpted, given character and flare in order to evoke emotion.
Rivian and Porsche, in my opinion, have designed beautiful EVs (inside and out). They have a design aesthetic that's unique to them and in the case of Porsche stays true to the brand. The Ferrari Luce looks like Ferrari hired Ive to take whatever work he did for Apple and copy paste it over to them. If this was announced as an Ive + Kia/Hyundai/Honda/Lexus/etc. collaboration would it look any more or less out of place? No, because it's been simplified to the point that it doesn't even look designed any more. It almost feels "default" in a way.
This is all just my opinion as someone that's been doing product engineering and industrial design for a long time and happens to love cars--take it with a grain of salt.
IMO if they just had materials with any sort of visual interest to them, this would be pretty beautiful.
Instead it feels like sitting inside an iPad which is an aesthetic already cheaply deployed at massive scale to motels, pharmacies, and shitty coffee shops.
I don't quite agree with this statement.
I would rephrase it like that: If Apple had built a car, this is the care and though process that we would have seen - incredible attention to details. But it would not have looked anything like what we’re seeing with Ferrari.
I am mostly OK with the wheel and the binnacle(?) cluster of gauges. The things I don’t like is instead of a stalk for the blinkers/turn signal, it is buttons on the wheel? (Should have been two mini paddles above the big paddles). I especially hate the two triangular control modules. They are ugly and useless. It is a Ferrari I want performance mode all the time. For cruise control, it should have been two mini paddles below the big paddles.
The worst is the center Tesla like display. Steve Jobs IMO would have drawn the line there and said no displays. He probably would have said you should connect your phone and fiddle with whatever in the app.
The overhead Launch pull button is really silly. This is screaming look at me and my mid life crisis.
I thought I was going to look at a car when I clicked that link. I scrolled the last 80% of the way out of morbid curiosity. This secondary quest was not disappointing: no car photos. So weird. Perhaps this is a complaint about the title.
But since it's all about the interface, I must say, the idea of a sports car with a touch screen is still rather terrifying.
All the necessary controls are fortunately physical in the Ferrari.
This is way better than what VW and other manufacturers have been doing in the last 5 years. At least VW is going back to physical controls as customers weren't satisfied with the capacitive buttons and hidden menus for essential functions.
I'm not sure there are any essential functions in a menu on a VW. Indicator, light and wiper controls are on physical stalks (kind of wild that "has an indicator stalk" is no longer common ground in cars), while ADAS, audio, climate controls and seat heating have dedicated touch buttons or sliders. The button experience of these touch buttons is mediocre, not as bad as bad physical buttons (since the touch buttons still gives very clear feedback whether they are activated), but certainly not as good as decent physical buttons. The sliders work fairly well, though for volume adjustment specifically it keeps feeling awkward, a rotary knob would be clearly better.
From this point of view the announced change in e.g. steering wheel buttons seems mostly cosmetic rather than fundamental. I hope they still keep the slider functionality on the wheel, it's quite intuitive and quicker imho. The bigger change would be that they're adding a central switch bar back, which seems to have the functions on it that are currently dedicated buttons in the main display. This seems like a clearer UX win to me.
Note that the exact date in May has not yet been announced, but there is a hint: in all the videos and screenshots of displays the date and time is shown as "Mon 25 10:10".
Now when Ive was still at Apple, the first screenshots of iPhone showed a time of 9:42 because that was the time they expected when the device was first shown. And that time was placed in all the official PR images well in advance.
Extracting from that, a Monday the 25th could be the time we'll first see the full car. Going through all 25ths of each month this year, May is indeed the only month where it falls on a Monday, so it's probably the 25th of May.
I think it's fine for wheel controls to look different though. You're adjusting them when engaged with a task that requires constant concentration, so being able to easily identify the control you want and then use it makes sense.
I'd rather have this than all of them look the same. If you're driving in rain and need to swap to wet tyre mode, but have to spend time figuring out which generic knob does the thing, it's dangerous.
My car has every button and knob share the same design language but all subtly - or not so subtly - different so that the moment a control is touched there is zero ambiguity as to a) how to operate it and b) which one it is.
Appearance also comes into play as one doesn't necessarily have to _look straight at_ something to distinguish which is which or what the position is, merely it being somewhere in peripheral vision may very well give just enough clue so that you don't really have to take your eyes off of the road.
Lexus CT200h is one of the best interiors ever designed. The design language was tactile: every single button or control had a different action or feel.
There’s a roughly 7 inch above the vents that flips up whenever the car is off, but using the screen is optional. The screen is up near the road, and it’s very safe to use. There’s a small joystick to move the cursor.
CT also has a stateless “springy gear selector” which works the same way as a manual gear selector, but after selecting the gear it springs back, so it’s stateless. It also has tactile blocking for gears you can’t enter yet. It felt extremely satisfying.
CT got a 10/10 from me, like a small aircraft cockpit. Enough knobs and computers to be exciting, but not OTT. Made a hybrid micro hatchback feel exciting.
BMWs interior pre-iPad-glued-to-the-dash is of the same quality. The automatic gear shifter is stateless, by it has an extremely satisfying clunk, buttons and dials for everything. Note that a stateless gear shifter isn't ideal if you ever need to move your car on a dead battery. In a BMW you need to go under the car and screw in a bolt that pushes the parking pall into neutral.
What do you mean interior EV design? Why does it have to differ from an EV to a gas powered car? You might have some different gauges, a control or two that is different, but other than that, why does an EV have to look a certain way?
> Why does it have to differ from an EV to a gas powered car?
Because they have different design constraints.
It didn’t take long for car manufacturers to figure out that a horseless carriage doesn’t have to look like a carriage. Early ones such as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benz_Velo certainly did. You can even see it somewhat in the Ford model T.
Similarly, an electric car doesn’t need an exhaust, and if the engines are in the wheels it doesn’t need a transmission tunnel.
That changes the design constraints, so chances are the optimal design looks different.
It still looks like a big computer screen, I'm afraid. Although, making it seamless with the dash is a step up, you're right. That tiny paddle gear shift looks horrendous, though.
I would really like to have analog features back, buttons and all that, in an EV.
Taycan relies too heavily on touch. Not even vent directions are manually adjustable on a Taycan. BMW i4 interior is much better in that aspect: many physical controls. I hope Porsche fixes its mistakes soon.
It literally is just a big minimalist computer screen. I drive a taycan and it would be significantly better if they were to remove the massive touchpad and replace it with a cluster of physical controls.
Rivians don't even have a physical vent control (to aim the vents). That alone disqualifies it from anything close to "excellent". And that's before mentioning all the missing physical buttons that should've been there.
Touch screen buttons, especially the ones on the far edge of the center screen, are harder to accurately hit for most people. More physical buttons = better = more premium.
looks like a weird mix of nothing, pointless clock, that screen on the right, that only creates discomfort. The big screen that is big only for the trend.
In tesla ( trend setter for this) big screen is functional, and it can show you multi media, when you charge you watch netflix.
I think Ferraris have gotten especially ugly in the last few generations. I generally like Jony Ive designs. But this is a mismatch. A whole new kind of not-right-is-ugly for Ferrari.
Elements of it are precious and well designed. But it doesn't feel like a car interior.
This is precisely why it's the right design for an Apple car and probably the wrong design for a Ferrari.
I knew someone who allegedly worked on the Special Project after a successful career at more familiar premium automotive brands. He was expressing exasperation with the process and said "I don't get why they're letting people who don't like cars design one. You wouldn't send your kids to a school full of teachers that hate children!"
It's a Ferrari EV.. I can imagine the company wanting to treat the project like a proverbial stepchild, while keeping the soul for the fossil-fueled machines..
After the 993, Porsche was a different company. Not exactly cheap-ass, but maybe something less than their often aircraft-quality mechanicals and spartan but hand-made quality interior.
At some point you have to accept a technology transition. Otherwise you sound like someone arguing against motor cars because the real thrill of transportation was the horse’s clippity-clop.
You don't need to accept anything when it comes to a $400,000 sports car. Ferrari drivers put like 1600 miles a year on their car, it's not even transportation, it's a weekend toy. They can just buy other toys, like helicopter rides, or whatever other thing will come along that will give them the thrill they want.
I actually don't have to accept it, same with automatic trans. If I'm going to splurge on something impractical like this, it better be awesome. Can't blame Ferrari for their decisions seeing how they want to be the fastest and also stay in business, but nothing after the F430 is exciting.
The selling point of electric sports cars is more "the acceleration is amazing" and less "it makes a loud noise".
e.g.
> a 0–100 km/h (62 mph) acceleration time of 2.36 seconds, and a quarter mile (402 m) drag race time of 9.78 seconds. ... unofficially the fastest production car in the world
Acceleration is about the only selling point of a sports EV.
They're so ungodly heavy because of the batteries that they handle like barges. They need giant tyres and so much ESC and software control because these things weigh almost 2000kg or more. You can try and work around it but there's only so much that can be done to make 2000kg take a corner.
Looking at where sports cars will be in 10 years with ICEs being regulated out of existence makes me very sad because it seems like we're about to see the death of the lightweight sports car.
Really? Simulating a transmission has been tried a few times over the last decade, but it's flopped repeatedly as just silly. It's not likely to impress Ferrari buyers.
The only successful vehicle which has that is a driver-training car built in China. It's electric, but has a clutch pedal and shifter which are inputs to the software. You can even "stall the engine".[1]
Tesla Roadster took a bunch of preorders at $50-250k down almost a decade ago, More recently, Taycan did reasonable-ish volume at $100-200k/unit. There (at least once was) a market for such things. Its definitely not the same market as ICE super/hypercars, but there are some that might enjoy a silent, luxurious car with a sub-2 0-60 as a complement to other cars in the garage.
They've been going to turbos in all but their flagships so they generally don't sound all that exciting anyway. Lambo literally draped their styling over a VW/Porsche parts-bin crossover SUV and all the influencers flocked to it. The person who appreciates the high-rpm wail of old timey, power-dense engines is not the same person who drops half a million on a car anymore.
There are simply way more super rich people than before. Simultaneously the fastest car tech isn't necessarily the coolest anymore. I see hypercars all the time and don't even care.
It's exists. Car and Driver and other sites have photos.
Obviously it's weird to not showcase the exterior of a Ferrari, that being pretty much the entire point of Ferrari. The cynic in me can't help but think this may be due to the fact that it looks like a lowered Hyundai with a body kit[1].
The good news is that this won't matter much because it's probably out of consideration for pretty much all of the HN crowd. Ferrari is one of those things which the ultra rich and a small sliver of the population can afford to buy brand new, and those not even lurking here. For everyone else it's something they can try out on a track if they are curious.
That being said, I wonder what can be cloned from this by others. The ICE are huge and refined and people can steal that engineering into other cars. With battery and motors, I feel like everyone is now on a level playing field and starts from zero. I wonder what will set apart a Ferrari from others.
Probably I will be impopular, but the best ferrari in the last 40 yrs is F-40 by engineer Materazzi. Designed all by him, except the japan mad turbo compressor.
That car's interior is a great example of what made Ferrari so iconic and aspirational. It's not trying to be nice and comfortable. It feels stiff, brutalist, direct. It has an immediacy and a danger.
I've wondered why they don't integrate the tablet directly into the dash or windshield. It does seem clunky to have a big ipad screwed to your dash. And I think it would also save on weight.
The handle and palm rest, in particular, stick out to me as a step up for anything with a touch screen. Giving you a place to anchor your hand while a finger does something is very nice. That the display can articulate is also nice, though it does add a potential weak point (how long until this gets loosey-goosey and moves around during hard g-forces?).
What, wealthy crypto and AI tech bros? Exactly the target audience for a company specializing in selling the ultimate solution to a mid life crisis for people on 6/7 figure salaries.
A lot of that UI will be difficult to operate with gloves on. And knobs that have to be twisted rather than thumb wheels on the steering wheel seem like strange choice to me; awkward to use even with bare hands.
What are people going to do with the G force gauge? Unlike speed, engine RPM, fuel reserves etc., people can sense acceleration perfectly well themselves. They wouldn't be able to put a number on it (although maybe could with training), but what good is that anyway?
And what even is the gauge on the left? It's just numbers without units.
This just looks like a gimmick because they wanted three gauges but lost engine RPM. Excusable for something like a wristwatch which is only there for aesthetic reasons, but a car where the gauges are there for safety reasons?
It's always funny to me that electronic speed controllers and electronic stability control have the same initials. ESC off, you have disconnected the motor!
If you're buying an appliance, why have it manufactured by Ferrari? Modern cars, especially electric ones, are not exciting in any way as cars. Only agenda motivated e car foamers pretend otherwise. Electric cars are exclusively exciting as commodity transportation.
Um, where is the car? All the images are of (parts of) the interior, and the captioning is bizarre. Ooohh! It has a steering wheel! (And it's a input! Who knew?)
Fortunately, there are many physical buttons. In the video, you can see that their functions vary depending on what is displayed on the screen. I think this is a brilliant solution that combines the best of the physical and virtual worlds.
The skeuomorphism is a curious choice. I think if I were going for a radical electric car UI I'd use bar graphs from left to right and things like that. Then again, maybe they don't want to alienate their customers.
I'm not a fan of that bold on iPad, but if they made those displays oil filled like ressence type 3, even with them being digital, they would look pretty nice given the proportions and ux/ui.
not sure why those things are still manufactured to reach 300km/h and advertised at 210km/h when all they do is mostly crowding at 10km/h in city's oldtowns
Is there some legal requirement to indicate the location of airbags because they contain explosives? If not, why does the steering wheel have an “AIRBAG” label at the bottom?
If I understand you correctly, there is a cool video on youtube that shows off a concept AE86 EV conversion that matches the driving experience of the original.
FYI, the Wikipedia article has a little more data on this vehicle as an EV:
4 motors, 1,113 horsepower, an 880 V platform, 122 kWh of battery, range 330 miles (531.1 km).
Not clear yet on the exact charge speed or launch date. Or what the 0-100km/h time is, but expect a low number, of course. That number has to be eye-catching.
Problem is that in an EV world the raw figures are really not going to be that impressive. Plenty of Chinese EVs have 1000+hp at far lower cost, and likely as good or better acceleration that whatever Ferrari can deliver, since EVs seem to be reaching a point where the limit on acceleration is the tires rather than the motor. So don't think Ferrari can deliver anything truly eye catching in those terms. Differentiation needs to come in other domains.
You're right, it's going to be hard to beat the Chinese EVs on pure price vs. specs.
They have to have specs in the same league though, and then differentiate. e.g. the 880 V platform indicates that the charging speed may be up to this year's benchmark for "good".
This teaser for the interior design will be part of differentiation campaign.
Having used sunglasses that project a monitor on to them products I am very surprised that the speedometer is going to move with the wheel.
That said an electric Ferrari is not a car built for me. If I could justify such a car I'd want something practical or that makes a great noise. "Fun" to drive would not be on my agenda.
Ferrari is announcing the car in three steps: first they announce the electric powertrain details, next they announced the interior details and lastly they'll announce what it'll actually look like.
This looks like some kids DT project presentation - focusing too much on things that the target audience aren’t really going to care about.
Also, how soulless is this car. Some cars I get into (previous gen Audis, used to with BMWs, Porsche) and feel that they’ve built the interior for the drivers enjoyment. This, no clue.
The emotions are in the envy of those that can't afford them. In that sense it is no different than your iPhone: people that have these always mention they have them. The difference with your iPhone is they rarely actually drive them.
They've been doing hybrids for a while now. Not to mention the F1 and LeMans prototype cars. This car is more like the iPhone SE or 16/17e line of phones.
Meh. Glad he and Alan Dye are gone. They would have ruined the Apple car. Appel should instead replace their entire design team with the folks from teenage engineering.
What a joke of a car, the "screens" are contagious. Peak design stupidity arrived at Ferarri, does it have the sliding on the screen gear stick too? Retractable door handles? I guess the price of old cars will grow faster than they used it.
I'm surprised no one talks about their overrated "engineering" section showing the chassis as if it's some piece of work from heaven, but in reality their welding quality is absolutely pathetic and even a 12 year old could do a better job than this:
So, we just discard someone's workmanship history and dump $x,00,000 just because of the brand value? 3 years ago but still relevant for a company who charges $500k for such poor workmanship. This is acceptable from a normal manufacturer like Hyundai (which ironically has much, much better welding standards), not from a luxury car company.
I love it, first ferarri that i have said "I want one". I have been an ev driver for over a decade and have no regrets, it has improved my life. The mental health benefits of driving an almost silent vehicle are completely over looked, the addiction to a vibrating noisy gas engine we find quite frankly bizarre in 2026, it is old technology, outdated, and becoming lost in history and thank you to the lithium cell.
Where is the car? All I see is a mock up dashboard that doesn't look very tangible. What does it look like? What does it sound like? What is it like to sit in the cockpit? How does it drive? This seems quite important to selling sports cars to me. This could almost be a commercial for selling for a perfume. Ow noes! No indicator stalks. No need to navigate roundabouts for Ferrari drivers. Going around corners is way too much fun for this car. It is Tesla all over again :S
After having spent (way too much) time in automotive interior and UI-design and leaving the field based on the realization that classic car design organisations across almost all manufacturers are mostly driven by "aesthetics" and gimmicky "tech"-quirks but do not seem to care about actual usability and utility, i had high hopes that Ive would be the one to come up with an interior that actually makes sense.
This might be harsh, but I'm afraid, this will have the same effect on the car industry as Liquid Glass will spill nonsensical decoration for effect's sake across software outside of Apple, taking years to clean up.
Starting with the Steering wheel - Indicators as buttons, really? Then the control modules on the wheel: Good luck figuring out how to use the ACC. Zero buttons for Volume, Prev/Next or even OK/Cancel to navigate anything - meaning you'll have to take your hands off the wheel for almost everything.
Plus, it's a very thin rim and for a performance car not the best choice IMHO.
Good thing though there's ginormous paddles for "torque control". </s>
The instrument cluster is a giant housing for three display areas that are anything but modern, aka Retrobore and in some cases not very good or clear - eg. tire pressure or the three scales in the power dial per mode that are very similar and probably too technical for most users.
I hope there's going to be some customization.
For the head unit itself, while it's nice having the option to swivel the unit it seems overengineered for a secondary feature.
While I'm happy to see physical switches and a rotary dial, the choice for what is being used as switches seems not ideal since the length of the switches might make it hard to use. People won't feel a shape/form and press it, but rather have to put in some muscular effort to hit the switch from the top or bottom and at the right angle - even if you can rest your palm on the handle of the unit.
As for visual design within the UI it almost seems unfinished and not very polished, let alone "luxurious" - especially the climate control screen.
Overall a missed opportunity that carries on the clutter we see today coming out of car manufacturers and neglects core utility in the automotive context.
It's neither focused and clean like most Apple products have been designed nor very emotional or even close to being "Ferrari".
It's the same problem as with everything automotive interior today (and for way too long already):
Decisions driven by automotive-/industrial designers who are caring for sculptural appearances first.
I sincerely hope that at some point we can see this as a chapter from the past - at a point in time where the DRIVER/passengers and ACTUAL utility are paramount and developed with software (and it's established rules about usabililty and affordance) being an integral part.
To add some more snark: Maybe Ive should care less about being chauffered in a Bentley and spend some actual time behind the wheel.
I think I would be looking for that very real, confident and perfectly even vibration a Ferrari has at idle; the valve train song, an extra octave in the exhaust.
Unfortunately for a lot of performance and luxury oriented Car manufacturers, EVs are a death trap - since they don't have access to any special battery chemistry, the drivetrain is basically a commodity - you can get more HP from Xiaomi than you can get from a Ferrari. Any advatages / weight savings around say carbon chassis will be negligible and probably more of a nuisance in daily driving.
Moreover the battery will degrade over time so it's not a good long term investment (unlike ICE cars where 100 year old machines still run fine).
I'm sure there will still be some buyers but the margins are going to get squeezed and the Rich Oil Sheikh will reconsider their purchasing choices when it gets overtaken by a Chinese EV equivalent at 1/10th of the price.
I really don't see how Ferrari can support its brand with a toy car like this.
There's more to this kind of a car the torque and straight-line speed. Take a look at this Tesla Model 3 Performance on the Nürburgring https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tdhYevUGwM, the brakes are overheated after a few minutes of driving.
In case anyone was wondering what the Apple Car would have looked like inside, it would have been roughly this.
As an Apple Car™ it makes sense, but as a Ferrari it's incredibly soulless and oversimplified. This Ive design aesthetic (Dieter Rams' aesthetic really) is fine on consumer electronics where you want the device to disappear and give way to the display, but on something as emotional as a vehicle (Ferrari especially), this design falls flat.
I do hope some of the design details work their way through the industry (e.g. using glass instead of gloss black plastic, convex glass to add depth to digital gauges), but I hope the rest of it stays as a one-off experiment demonstrating the hubris and one-dimensionality of a top designer.
EVs have a weight issue that fundamentally constrains their overall design. It is really a tough engineering problem to try to shave weight off of everything, because you are starting out with a 700kg battery replacing a 400kg engine + transmission, so you are ~300kg in the hole, and need to remove 300 kg from the rest of the car. That's why they do crazy stuff like use the battery as part of the structural frame, to save on metal there. Every extra kilogram reduces range. Solid things are made hollow. Metal is replaced by plastic. Fabrics are thinner or replaced with lighter-weight engineered materials. Lots of things are removed. Physical buttons gone, flourishes gone, handles gone. Seats are made thinner and with less material. See how they brag about a simpler new steering wheel that is 400g lighter?
All of that and still they come up with a 2300 kg compact two row SUV.
So, if you are going to be redesigning everything anyway to try to get rid of as much weight as possible, why not hire a designer known for sparse, minimalistic, clean design? It makes sense. It may not be what Ferrari buyers want, but you can't really blame Ferrari for giving it a try. We'll see how well it sells.
Ferrari will sell all that they make. If you want to purchase one of the highly desirable low-volume models you can't just walk into a dealership and write a check. You first have to purchase a few of the high-volume models to earn enough "points" on their internal customer priority list. A lot of rich guys will buy a Luce just for that purpose, and then leave it in their garage or maybe drive it to the country club occasionally.
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I think you are wrong on the "weight issue" regarding EV. ICE cars have a weight issue as they consume more gas depending on the weight, which is the case to a much lesser extent in BEV. At high speed, aerodynamics become the main factor reducing range. With urban stop and go traffic, regenerative braking lowers the weight's impact massively. BMW's i3 was constructed with the same mistake: let’s reduce weight to gain range, which didn’t pay off. It added to the cost due to expensive composite materials, lesser to the range. Manufacturers learned from BMW's mistake and build the body with conventional metal sheets. Nevertheless reducing weight has its advantages: using less material saves expenses and helps driving dynamics. Range is a minor factor.
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I wonder what the speed/weight tradeoff is on a Ferrari though. Eg on a Bugatti they can put in a beast of an engine (heavy) because their buyers care only about power output and if it gets 8 miles to a gallon who cares.
On an electric sports car, where does the break lie between extra weight for a powerful battery and too much weight to make the car go vroom?
Side note: I wonder if, in 20 years, petrol cars will the preserve of the very rich and the very poor.
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Given the heavy use of metal and glass to replace plastic parts, I suspect LoveFrom did the exact opposite of shaving weight off the interior :)
Weight doesn’t make all that much difference to EV range: aerodynamics are a much more important factor.
Handling and “sports car feel” are affected by weight, though, and this is the real reason that Ferrari would want to cut weight to a minimum on their EV.
Keep in mind that, especially for performance cars, the instant torque and low center of gravity (because those cells can go in the floor) really helps.
Yes, the added weight is bad for handling which is a shame especially in a car like this.
The weight savings aren't that big of a deal, they do that in every car and it's mostly marketing. But if you're one of those brands that can sell the same car, but use some fancy metals and such for a 50k markup, why would you not.
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Molicel's P60 (INR-21700-P60C) weighs 75 grams and can produce almost a horsepower. A 500 horsepower battery weighs less than 42 kg. It stores 12 kWh.
Batteries are not heavy, range is heavy. Range is the sacrifice and sports cars don't need range.
> See how they brag about a simpler new steering wheel that is 400g lighter?
As if ferrari -as if all sportscar manufacturers- have not done the same always. Replacing door handles with straps is not new.
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From what I've heard from auto engineers I know, using the battery as part of the structure is not really done. Transfering mechanical stresses to the battery is something you just do not do.
Additionally the battery must be protected in the event of the crash, so its casing must survive intact.
I mean, it's possible that some manufacturers might do it a little bit to put it on the marketing brochure, but the additional design headaches and safety concerns mean that there's just not that much to gain.
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Weight is a non-issue on a batter car because of regen braking.
The inside of the Apple Car looked nothing like this - primarily because "driving" is the main activity the design of this Ferrari is intended to serve, and "driving" was not an activity that the Apple car intended to support.
You're driving it wrong.
It certainly looks like an Apple device. Ive's aesthetic is Apple's aesthetic, so if you hire Ive, that is what you are going to get.
I can see a car company who doesn't care about design stumbling into this outcome, but Ferrari doesn't seem like that kind of company. So the choice must have been intentional.
As Ferrari has been proving over the last few generations, they know how to make engines but Pininfarina knows how to design cars. I'm not even slightly surprised by the Luce.
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Marc Newson is a “Watch Guy” and this also clearly comes across.
Well, that’s the problem with product design — looking at it simply doesn’t suffice. It needs to be experienced in person.
Well, that’s not (yet) possible, but this video does a good job in the meantime:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6Wv1btxCjVE&pp=ygUQTG92ZWZyb20...
Everything will undoubtedly feel nice/premium as a result of being metal and glass, but you spend more time looking at the entire interior than touching every part of it, so appearance is important.
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Ferrari interiors have always been spartan and aimed at functionality.
This feels like a modern Ferrari F40 dashboard and I like it a lot.
This is an enormous departure from Ferrari interiors to the point where it no longer looks anything like a Ferrari beyond the emblems inside.
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> but on something as emotional as a vehicle (Ferrari especially), this design falls flat.
Strongly disagree. To each their own...
There will undoubtedly be people that like or love it and there's nothing wrong with that. Design is rather subjective. Fortunately I'm not in the market for a $300,000+ EV made by Ferrari, so I don't have to lose sleep at night over buying this or not :)
I think the Aston Marting with the Apple Carplay Ultra[0] is a pretty good example of what an Apple Car would have looked like.
[0]: https://www.astonmartin.com/en-us/our-world/brand-stories/as...
So bland. An iPad put in a holder. I was not exactly hoping for, because I didn't really, but I dreamt of a much more radical design direction.
I first thought that too, but if you take the time to scroll down a bit, you'll see that the instruments are actually three separate screens, and at least the center one has a mechanical needle. Also, the central control panel has lots of physical switches (Musk would hate it) and even a round instrument in the top right corner with mechanical hands, which can be either a clock, a stopwatch or (for whatever reason) a compass. So definitely not an iPad put in a holder.
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At least it's not your living room TV put in a holder. (Hi Elon!)
What is oversimplified specifically (given this is an electric car)
This question's answer would require something more lecture length that dives into fundamentals of design with an equal amount of time spent on automotive design. No one has the time or care for something like that, so I'll try to give a high level answer.
Generally speaking, cars are not about simple designs/shapes. They, especially to enthusiasts, are viewed as something closer to art where care is taken to craft shapes and forms for both function and feel. This is amplified dramatically for Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini, etc..
Ive was clearly doing this design work for the Apple EV that never shipped. It followed Apple's historic design aesthetic (driven largely by him) of simplifying things as much as possible--using circles and squircles everywhere, removing as many unnecessary geometry as possible. That's fine for an Apple EV because that's their design aesthetic. That is, demonstrably, not Ferrari's design aesthetic. It's a jarring departure from decades of automotive design and, in my professional opinion, an exercise in hubris.
As we remember that design is largely subjective and that this is all my opinion, I will say that almost everything in the vehicle is overly simplified:
* Steering wheel: an attempt at modern retro, but they added two blobs (to keep the steering wheel simple) to house the dials and buttons instead of incorporating it in a sculpted, thoughtful way. Instead of putting the turn signals in those blobs (or elsewhere), they interrupted the simple steering wheel with a couple circles to act as the turn signals.
* Digital instrument cluster: it's an iPad that connects to the base of the steering wheel. Wasted space in the top corners. Convex glass is a really nice touch however. Gauges are strange to me (gas gauge for an EV, left dial is confusing at first glance, G-force gauge unnecessarily busy), but that can always be changed later so not worth waxing on about.
* The key: a small iPhone 4. It's not terrible, but it's rather uninspired and boring. Ferraris aren't supposed to be boring.
* Dashboard interface: another iPad, but with a Mac Pro handle on it. Might be very nice for moving it, but how often are you going to do that? Does it stick out far enough to act as a wrist-rest as mentioned in their video? The mechanical switches are a nice touch if the display/UI keeps up. The clock/compass/stopwatch in the top right is neat, but almost antithetical to the rest of the design--it's added complexity for the sake of complexity. I still like it though.
* Vents: these make sense to be simplified. I've never loved the number of flaps in most vehicles, but if you have kids you might have issues with toys/food getting lost inside if there's no mesh behind it.
* Seats are nice, but if you removed the Ferrari emblem would you know it's a Ferrari? Is there enough bolstering for spirited driving?
The shapes, iconography, etc. are all carried over from Apple devices. Cars, even in EV form, are not iPads and iPhones. Cars, particularly those like Ferraris, are supposed to be designed, sculpted, given character and flare in order to evoke emotion.
Rivian and Porsche, in my opinion, have designed beautiful EVs (inside and out). They have a design aesthetic that's unique to them and in the case of Porsche stays true to the brand. The Ferrari Luce looks like Ferrari hired Ive to take whatever work he did for Apple and copy paste it over to them. If this was announced as an Ive + Kia/Hyundai/Honda/Lexus/etc. collaboration would it look any more or less out of place? No, because it's been simplified to the point that it doesn't even look designed any more. It almost feels "default" in a way.
This is all just my opinion as someone that's been doing product engineering and industrial design for a long time and happens to love cars--take it with a grain of salt.
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IMO if they just had materials with any sort of visual interest to them, this would be pretty beautiful.
Instead it feels like sitting inside an iPad which is an aesthetic already cheaply deployed at massive scale to motels, pharmacies, and shitty coffee shops.
There was never an Apple Car, but if there was ever a thing that might have become an Apple Car it wouldn’t look anything like this.
I don't quite agree with this statement. I would rephrase it like that: If Apple had built a car, this is the care and though process that we would have seen - incredible attention to details. But it would not have looked anything like what we’re seeing with Ferrari.
"this design falls flat" he says, as if it was an objective fact and not a personal preference
I am mostly OK with the wheel and the binnacle(?) cluster of gauges. The things I don’t like is instead of a stalk for the blinkers/turn signal, it is buttons on the wheel? (Should have been two mini paddles above the big paddles). I especially hate the two triangular control modules. They are ugly and useless. It is a Ferrari I want performance mode all the time. For cruise control, it should have been two mini paddles below the big paddles.
The worst is the center Tesla like display. Steve Jobs IMO would have drawn the line there and said no displays. He probably would have said you should connect your phone and fiddle with whatever in the app.
The overhead Launch pull button is really silly. This is screaming look at me and my mid life crisis.
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I thought I was going to look at a car when I clicked that link. I scrolled the last 80% of the way out of morbid curiosity. This secondary quest was not disappointing: no car photos. So weird. Perhaps this is a complaint about the title.
But since it's all about the interface, I must say, the idea of a sports car with a touch screen is still rather terrifying.
All the necessary controls are fortunately physical in the Ferrari.
This is way better than what VW and other manufacturers have been doing in the last 5 years. At least VW is going back to physical controls as customers weren't satisfied with the capacitive buttons and hidden menus for essential functions.
I'm not sure there are any essential functions in a menu on a VW. Indicator, light and wiper controls are on physical stalks (kind of wild that "has an indicator stalk" is no longer common ground in cars), while ADAS, audio, climate controls and seat heating have dedicated touch buttons or sliders. The button experience of these touch buttons is mediocre, not as bad as bad physical buttons (since the touch buttons still gives very clear feedback whether they are activated), but certainly not as good as decent physical buttons. The sliders work fairly well, though for volume adjustment specifically it keeps feeling awkward, a rotary knob would be clearly better.
From this point of view the announced change in e.g. steering wheel buttons seems mostly cosmetic rather than fundamental. I hope they still keep the slider functionality on the wheel, it's quite intuitive and quicker imho. The bigger change would be that they're adding a central switch bar back, which seems to have the functions on it that are currently dedicated buttons in the main display. This seems like a clearer UX win to me.
BYD has physical controls, which I really like.
They say elsewhere that it’s part of a series of reveals.
The ev powertrain last October, this, and the exterior in May.
Note that the exact date in May has not yet been announced, but there is a hint: in all the videos and screenshots of displays the date and time is shown as "Mon 25 10:10".
Now when Ive was still at Apple, the first screenshots of iPhone showed a time of 9:42 because that was the time they expected when the device was first shown. And that time was placed in all the official PR images well in advance.
Extracting from that, a Monday the 25th could be the time we'll first see the full car. Going through all 25ths of each month this year, May is indeed the only month where it falls on a Monday, so it's probably the 25th of May.
It's a 4-door, 4-seater. Sporty?
Well, maybe if I win the lottery, I'll be able to afford a Ferrari minivan? I'm so confused.
It worked for the M5.
Same, even on the web I was not able to find a car photo.
This is the kind of design I'd expect from Ive: it is designed to look nice. Ease-of-use is another story.
There's a lack of consistency on the wheel controls that make this look more like a UX showcase rather than a usable interface.
Case in point:
- A bunch of rotary knob that perform the same function: to select. But, they all look different and use different ways to represent the selection.
- Some have a lighted indicator, some have a notch, and some are completely ambiguous.
- The 2, 1, *, 0 switch has a hole in it to indicate the currently selected option.
- The plastic surrounding this is is mere millimeters of thickness and I would expect it to break off within a decade.
I think it's fine for wheel controls to look different though. You're adjusting them when engaged with a task that requires constant concentration, so being able to easily identify the control you want and then use it makes sense.
I'd rather have this than all of them look the same. If you're driving in rain and need to swap to wet tyre mode, but have to spend time figuring out which generic knob does the thing, it's dangerous.
Exactly.
My car has every button and knob share the same design language but all subtly - or not so subtly - different so that the moment a control is touched there is zero ambiguity as to a) how to operate it and b) which one it is.
Appearance also comes into play as one doesn't necessarily have to _look straight at_ something to distinguish which is which or what the position is, merely it being somewhere in peripheral vision may very well give just enough clue so that you don't really have to take your eyes off of the road.
Porsche is the only car company that has nailed interior EV design - IMO.
Their interiors look high-end, functional and not just a minimalist big computer screen.
https://www.caranddriver.com/photos/g46528574/2024-porsche-m...
Lexus CT200h is one of the best interiors ever designed. The design language was tactile: every single button or control had a different action or feel.
https://cdn-fastly.thetruthaboutcars.com/media/2022/07/20/94...
There’s a roughly 7 inch above the vents that flips up whenever the car is off, but using the screen is optional. The screen is up near the road, and it’s very safe to use. There’s a small joystick to move the cursor.
Screen up:
https://preview.redd.it/after-about-a-year-of-ownership-post...
CT also has a stateless “springy gear selector” which works the same way as a manual gear selector, but after selecting the gear it springs back, so it’s stateless. It also has tactile blocking for gears you can’t enter yet. It felt extremely satisfying.
CT got a 10/10 from me, like a small aircraft cockpit. Enough knobs and computers to be exciting, but not OTT. Made a hybrid micro hatchback feel exciting.
BMWs interior pre-iPad-glued-to-the-dash is of the same quality. The automatic gear shifter is stateless, by it has an extremely satisfying clunk, buttons and dials for everything. Note that a stateless gear shifter isn't ideal if you ever need to move your car on a dead battery. In a BMW you need to go under the car and screw in a bolt that pushes the parking pall into neutral.
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CT200h is the nearly perfect hybrid, IMHO, interior included. Thumbs up emoji!
Looks a little bland to me.
Personally I’m very happy with the interior of my 2012 Cayenne.
This looks gorgeous.
What do you mean interior EV design? Why does it have to differ from an EV to a gas powered car? You might have some different gauges, a control or two that is different, but other than that, why does an EV have to look a certain way?
> Why does it have to differ from an EV to a gas powered car?
Because they have different design constraints.
It didn’t take long for car manufacturers to figure out that a horseless carriage doesn’t have to look like a carriage. Early ones such as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benz_Velo certainly did. You can even see it somewhat in the Ford model T.
Similarly, an electric car doesn’t need an exhaust, and if the engines are in the wheels it doesn’t need a transmission tunnel.
That changes the design constraints, so chances are the optimal design looks different.
Well it's exactly that. It shouldn't look different, but the other carmakers decided EVs must have annoying interiors.
It still looks like a big computer screen, I'm afraid. Although, making it seamless with the dash is a step up, you're right. That tiny paddle gear shift looks horrendous, though.
I would really like to have analog features back, buttons and all that, in an EV.
Taycan relies too heavily on touch. Not even vent directions are manually adjustable on a Taycan. BMW i4 interior is much better in that aspect: many physical controls. I hope Porsche fixes its mistakes soon.
It literally is just a big minimalist computer screen. I drive a taycan and it would be significantly better if they were to remove the massive touchpad and replace it with a cluster of physical controls.
I'm sorry, this is awful - it's just a bunch of tablets.
Dashboard-wide screen and almost absent physical controls? No, thank you.
Ferrari may not have nailed it, but it's a move to the right direction.
The new Cayenne interior is terrible. Macan is good.
Rivian is the only excellent one.
Rivians don't even have a physical vent control (to aim the vents). That alone disqualifies it from anything close to "excellent". And that's before mentioning all the missing physical buttons that should've been there.
Touch screen buttons, especially the ones on the far edge of the center screen, are harder to accurately hit for most people. More physical buttons = better = more premium.
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We have a different idea of "high-end" and "functional" considering how much of the interior controls are just capacitive surfaces.
Porsche and Rivian (with a nod to Rivian) imo.
looks like a weird mix of nothing, pointless clock, that screen on the right, that only creates discomfort. The big screen that is big only for the trend.
In tesla ( trend setter for this) big screen is functional, and it can show you multi media, when you charge you watch netflix.
this screen is not capable of multi media....
beautiful. I hope the next thing to get out of car interiors is the black glossy plastic.
My car has it - shows EVERY spec of dust. Every finger smudge. Cleaning with a microfiber cloth left scratches.
The only thing I can think of is that it's designed to reduce resell value
I can't believe Porsche would do the blue LED thing.
I think Ferraris have gotten especially ugly in the last few generations. I generally like Jony Ive designs. But this is a mismatch. A whole new kind of not-right-is-ugly for Ferrari.
Elements of it are precious and well designed. But it doesn't feel like a car interior.
Oh. I have the exact opposite feeling. I'm not into cars but I love this.
This is precisely why it's the right design for an Apple car and probably the wrong design for a Ferrari.
I knew someone who allegedly worked on the Special Project after a successful career at more familiar premium automotive brands. He was expressing exasperation with the process and said "I don't get why they're letting people who don't like cars design one. You wouldn't send your kids to a school full of teachers that hate children!"
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My fear is that it’s the most attractive part of the car design :-)
That doesn't look good. I'm very surprised that a brand like them release such a cheap-ass version.
It's a Ferrari EV.. I can imagine the company wanting to treat the project like a proverbial stepchild, while keeping the soul for the fossil-fueled machines..
yeah, seems EV is a hard market to enter. Porsche seems that have had a hard time entering it too (see numbers, am no expert)
I thought it was a joke.
It looks like something from Fisher Price.
But I'm clearly not the target audience.
haha me neither
After the 993, Porsche was a different company. Not exactly cheap-ass, but maybe something less than their often aircraft-quality mechanicals and spartan but hand-made quality interior.
Is there a market for a $400,000+ electric sports car? For me, the excitement of a Ferrari, Lamborghini, etc is the engine and the sound.
> the engine and the sound
At some point you have to accept a technology transition. Otherwise you sound like someone arguing against motor cars because the real thrill of transportation was the horse’s clippity-clop.
You don't need to accept anything when it comes to a $400,000 sports car. Ferrari drivers put like 1600 miles a year on their car, it's not even transportation, it's a weekend toy. They can just buy other toys, like helicopter rides, or whatever other thing will come along that will give them the thrill they want.
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( 100+ years of having cars, and there are a large number of people who still spend lots of money to get a horse's clippity-clop )
I actually don't have to accept it, same with automatic trans. If I'm going to splurge on something impractical like this, it better be awesome. Can't blame Ferrari for their decisions seeing how they want to be the fastest and also stay in business, but nothing after the F430 is exciting.
The selling point of electric sports cars is more "the acceleration is amazing" and less "it makes a loud noise".
e.g.
> a 0–100 km/h (62 mph) acceleration time of 2.36 seconds, and a quarter mile (402 m) drag race time of 9.78 seconds. ... unofficially the fastest production car in the world
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yangwang_U9
> Model S Plaid Takes 2.07 Seconds to Accelerate from 0-100 mph
https://www.energytrend.com/news/20210623-22467.html
Acceleration is about the only selling point of a sports EV.
They're so ungodly heavy because of the batteries that they handle like barges. They need giant tyres and so much ESC and software control because these things weigh almost 2000kg or more. You can try and work around it but there's only so much that can be done to make 2000kg take a corner.
Looking at where sports cars will be in 10 years with ICEs being regulated out of existence makes me very sad because it seems like we're about to see the death of the lightweight sports car.
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typo in the title, it should be 0-100 kmh, not mph.
The sound of horses is vastly more pleasant than an engine.
It will have simulated gear changes if that helps at all...
To be honest, it may help for the modern Ferrari driver. It doesn't help for those who appreciate the Ferraris from the '90s and before.
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Really? Simulating a transmission has been tried a few times over the last decade, but it's flopped repeatedly as just silly. It's not likely to impress Ferrari buyers.
The only successful vehicle which has that is a driver-training car built in China. It's electric, but has a clutch pedal and shifter which are inputs to the software. You can even "stall the engine".[1]
[1] https://www.jalopnik.com/this-chinese-electric-car-designed-...
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Tesla Roadster took a bunch of preorders at $50-250k down almost a decade ago, More recently, Taycan did reasonable-ish volume at $100-200k/unit. There (at least once was) a market for such things. Its definitely not the same market as ICE super/hypercars, but there are some that might enjoy a silent, luxurious car with a sub-2 0-60 as a complement to other cars in the garage.
They've been going to turbos in all but their flagships so they generally don't sound all that exciting anyway. Lambo literally draped their styling over a VW/Porsche parts-bin crossover SUV and all the influencers flocked to it. The person who appreciates the high-rpm wail of old timey, power-dense engines is not the same person who drops half a million on a car anymore.
There are simply way more super rich people than before. Simultaneously the fastest car tech isn't necessarily the coolest anymore. I see hypercars all the time and don't even care.
as long as there is a Market, there will be a market for rich boy toys.
Seems like the steering wheel comes in three colours: silver, rose gold, and space gray...
This is the closest we've ever got to the Apple Car.
That is the point that cracked me up the most.
I found this video review to be much more informative and compelling.
https://youtu.be/6Wv1btxCjVE?si=_1mvIHT3r_CQsuTZ
I find the thin steering wheels sumptuous.
Discussion (51 points, 77 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46944978
No actual car is visible in this car promotion website.
I had the same thought, but the article starts with "first look at the interior". So maybe the exterior does not exist yet?
It's exists. Car and Driver and other sites have photos.
Obviously it's weird to not showcase the exterior of a Ferrari, that being pretty much the entire point of Ferrari. The cynic in me can't help but think this may be due to the fact that it looks like a lowered Hyundai with a body kit[1].
[1] https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a70279106/ferrari-luce-ev-...
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The good news is that this won't matter much because it's probably out of consideration for pretty much all of the HN crowd. Ferrari is one of those things which the ultra rich and a small sliver of the population can afford to buy brand new, and those not even lurking here. For everyone else it's something they can try out on a track if they are curious.
That being said, I wonder what can be cloned from this by others. The ICE are huge and refined and people can steal that engineering into other cars. With battery and motors, I feel like everyone is now on a level playing field and starts from zero. I wonder what will set apart a Ferrari from others.
Does this car also come with an exterior?
I didn't see any.
> Does this car also come with an exterior?
technically no, since it doesn't come at all yet. It has yet to be launched. But the exterior is likely final or close to it by now.
Dripfeeding details in advance is a publicity move. It makes people hungry to see more. Expect to see it some time before launch in 2026.
Probably I will be impopular, but the best ferrari in the last 40 yrs is F-40 by engineer Materazzi. Designed all by him, except the japan mad turbo compressor.
That car's interior is a great example of what made Ferrari so iconic and aspirational. It's not trying to be nice and comfortable. It feels stiff, brutalist, direct. It has an immediacy and a danger.
I do not think this is an unpopular opinion at all. In fact, it's one of the most popular ones I believe.
Not unpopular at all. I think it's one of the best Ferrari ever made.
The tablet interface looks cheap and low-budget. When you spend that much on a car you don't want the interior to look like a Model S.
Not only cheap, but boring in a car which wasn't supposed to be boring.
In many other cars that look would have been sleek.
I've wondered why they don't integrate the tablet directly into the dash or windshield. It does seem clunky to have a big ipad screwed to your dash. And I think it would also save on weight.
The interior of my Mazda looks more high-end than this... Yikes, Ferrari.
This is not a car for tech bros with no culture, no traditions, and no past. This is a Ferrari.
> This is not a car for tech bros with no culture, no traditions, and no past.
Weird, because that's exactly what it looks like.
The handle and palm rest, in particular, stick out to me as a step up for anything with a touch screen. Giving you a place to anchor your hand while a finger does something is very nice. That the display can articulate is also nice, though it does add a potential weak point (how long until this gets loosey-goosey and moves around during hard g-forces?).
We are here on HN are clearly not the target market for this product.
The ultrabilionaire roam among us on their throwaway accounts.
Not with that attitude.
What, wealthy crypto and AI tech bros? Exactly the target audience for a company specializing in selling the ultimate solution to a mid life crisis for people on 6/7 figure salaries.
Physical controls! This is the opposite of Flat UI. I hope others copy this car as opposed to Tesla.
A lot of that UI will be difficult to operate with gloves on. And knobs that have to be twisted rather than thumb wheels on the steering wheel seem like strange choice to me; awkward to use even with bare hands.
What are people going to do with the G force gauge? Unlike speed, engine RPM, fuel reserves etc., people can sense acceleration perfectly well themselves. They wouldn't be able to put a number on it (although maybe could with training), but what good is that anyway?
And what even is the gauge on the left? It's just numbers without units.
This just looks like a gimmick because they wanted three gauges but lost engine RPM. Excusable for something like a wristwatch which is only there for aesthetic reasons, but a car where the gauges are there for safety reasons?
I've never had one but it would be kind of interesting to see what the max cornering force was and maybe useful to see how close to the limit you are.
What limit? The limit is when the tyres lose traction, not some number on a screen.
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Photo collection: https://bookmarker.cc/bora/ferrari-luce
> ESC off
It's always funny to me that electronic speed controllers and electronic stability control have the same initials. ESC off, you have disconnected the motor!
I had to double check the URL to make sure this isn't a parody.
The interior is akin to something from a compact Chinese car. Nothing to do with Ferrari.
Jony Ive took one look at a Freightliner Cascadia's digital dashboard and went "Damn, give me some of that in a Ferrari".
https://bigrigs.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/CASCADIA-D...
Funny how I want to say bad things about a car I'll never afford.
Anyway, whether it's a Ferrari or other, I'm always disappointed by touchscreen in cars.
And as I said it before, it always seems and afterthought and just put there because someone forgot about it.
I'm guess I'm getting old but when I'm driving I usually look at the road and couldn't car less about a nice touchscreen.
Once you get used to a nice huge GPS you won't want to go back.
If you're buying an appliance, why have it manufactured by Ferrari? Modern cars, especially electric ones, are not exciting in any way as cars. Only agenda motivated e car foamers pretend otherwise. Electric cars are exclusively exciting as commodity transportation.
Um, where is the car? All the images are of (parts of) the interior, and the captioning is bizarre. Ooohh! It has a steering wheel! (And it's a input! Who knew?)
They only shared the interior, not exterior.
404, no exterior car pictures found
I scrolled for about a century and there was not a single image with a full view of the car?
It hasn't been revealed yet.
That is released in May
This looks like the controls for a very stylish Italian delivery van. Not an exotic sports car.
Fortunately, there are many physical buttons. In the video, you can see that their functions vary depending on what is displayed on the screen. I think this is a brilliant solution that combines the best of the physical and virtual worlds.
It's stupid because you're driving and can't look at the screen.
Ferrari is actually using words instead of icons! Hooray!
(I knew they would eventually listen to me!)
I liked it after watching this excellent video walk through - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Wv1btxCjVE
The skeuomorphism is a curious choice. I think if I were going for a radical electric car UI I'd use bar graphs from left to right and things like that. Then again, maybe they don't want to alienate their customers.
1980s style?
https://www.core77.com/posts/109822/A-Look-at-Some-Wild-1980...
You know it!
I'm not a fan of that bold on iPad, but if they made those displays oil filled like ressence type 3, even with them being digital, they would look pretty nice given the proportions and ux/ui.
not sure why those things are still manufactured to reach 300km/h and advertised at 210km/h when all they do is mostly crowding at 10km/h in city's oldtowns
The Thurstmaster steering wheel for the PlayStation looks nicer
Is there some legal requirement to indicate the location of airbags because they contain explosives? If not, why does the steering wheel have an “AIRBAG” label at the bottom?
Yes, UN ECE 94 requires them.
Does it have Lightning adapter or do i need a new cable?
Finally, the return of silver, rose gold, and space gray.
Why does an electric car need a flappy paddle gearbox?
I saw paddles and thought, finally someone that incorporated a 2-4 speed transmission in order to put some form of soul in EV. But no.
If I understand you correctly, there is a cool video on youtube that shows off a concept AE86 EV conversion that matches the driving experience of the original.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DE2oDKguy3Q
The 600hp (Kia!) EV6 GT has paddles too. Been trying to figure out how to repurpose them.
Well, the elements look better together on the shown dashboard compared to what appeared on HN yesterday with the elements all separated
Who will buy this when the X roadster is released that is able to hover etc from SpaceX tech? Legacy auto is toast they move too slow.
with FSD being just a wrapper around Grok, neat!
I don't know but why all electric cars look similarly bare inside? Why don't you make it more exciting and not so “tesla” moderate?
Probably to save weight, given how much the batteries weigh in electric cars. This is purely an uneducated guess, though...
But most of them have panoramic roof, isn’t it way heavier?
I think I'd like this better if the centre console screen was less rounded. The way it is, gives off 'toyish' vibes.
FYI, the Wikipedia article has a little more data on this vehicle as an EV: 4 motors, 1,113 horsepower, an 880 V platform, 122 kWh of battery, range 330 miles (531.1 km).
Not clear yet on the exact charge speed or launch date. Or what the 0-100km/h time is, but expect a low number, of course. That number has to be eye-catching.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrari_Luce
Problem is that in an EV world the raw figures are really not going to be that impressive. Plenty of Chinese EVs have 1000+hp at far lower cost, and likely as good or better acceleration that whatever Ferrari can deliver, since EVs seem to be reaching a point where the limit on acceleration is the tires rather than the motor. So don't think Ferrari can deliver anything truly eye catching in those terms. Differentiation needs to come in other domains.
You're right, it's going to be hard to beat the Chinese EVs on pure price vs. specs.
They have to have specs in the same league though, and then differentiate. e.g. the 880 V platform indicates that the charging speed may be up to this year's benchmark for "good".
This teaser for the interior design will be part of differentiation campaign.
Love the physical knobs, switches and buttons. Looks retro but modern, but more importantly it’s a lot safer.
The shifter looks like a bad joke for a Ferrari, and the whole design would better fit a Skoda or VW.
Touchscreen insanity and even rounder corners than Tahoe. I guess I am not their target customer.
yikes this looks awful, unless this is the new mass market Ferrari that's going to start at $30,000
When Ferrari's hand is forced by the technology, you know it's unstoppable.
Having used sunglasses that project a monitor on to them products I am very surprised that the speedometer is going to move with the wheel.
That said an electric Ferrari is not a car built for me. If I could justify such a car I'd want something practical or that makes a great noise. "Fun" to drive would not be on my agenda.
Is the exterior of the car not public yet? Why is the only detail about the control cluster?
Ferrari is announcing the car in three steps: first they announce the electric powertrain details, next they announced the interior details and lastly they'll announce what it'll actually look like.
This looks like some kids DT project presentation - focusing too much on things that the target audience aren’t really going to care about.
Also, how soulless is this car. Some cars I get into (previous gen Audis, used to with BMWs, Porsche) and feel that they’ve built the interior for the drivers enjoyment. This, no clue.
Nothing against EV, but a full electric Ferrari is almost a profanity IMHO.
Did they remove the turn signal stalk? Just like Tesla did?
Ferrari removed the stalk over 15 years ago.
https://youtu.be/ujl0NYeDJoI?t=810
More proof that americans have no sense of style.
so OpenAI[0] designed a Ferrari?
[0] https://openai.com/sam-and-jony/
OpenAI bought io, not LoveFrom.
All rendering without real photo is off-putting.
Why isn't anyone talking about why the website doesn't work the side bar the loading icon is too far up on the page this is actually embarrassing.
I love the design of the body.
Classic Ferrari. I think?
I must assume when you go pedal-to-the-metal, there is no vroom-VROOM - just the same sound we know from a cheap laptop cooling fan?
I'm excited to see the Apple car!
Where are the emotions? This is just a soulless machine.
The website doesn’t even work properly. I can’t scroll all the way to the end on my iPhone.
The emotions are in the envy of those that can't afford them. In that sense it is no different than your iPhone: people that have these always mention they have them. The difference with your iPhone is they rarely actually drive them.
iPhone is just a solid phone, nothing all that fancy. It's like a Honda Accord, and Samsung is like a Nissan Altima.
Hmm, for me it's the V8 in the back.
> First Electric Ferrari
This is big. Ferrari, as a brand, is the top cult of internal combustion engine.
For them to release an EV is like Apple releasing an Windows computer or Android phone.
Soon, the last holdout of big oil will be the American government.
They've been doing hybrids for a while now. Not to mention the F1 and LeMans prototype cars. This car is more like the iPhone SE or 16/17e line of phones.
The name they gave to their first electric car sounds discouraging.. Why would someone name it Luce.. which sounds like Lose
It doesn't sound like that in Italian. It's loo-che.
Meh. Glad he and Alan Dye are gone. They would have ruined the Apple car. Appel should instead replace their entire design team with the folks from teenage engineering.
This looks awesome
How much is this?
More.
What a joke of a car, the "screens" are contagious. Peak design stupidity arrived at Ferarri, does it have the sliding on the screen gear stick too? Retractable door handles? I guess the price of old cars will grow faster than they used it.
Very functional.
I'm ecstatic that I can't afford one of those.
Sorta meh imo. Looks like a more skeletal version of a kia I was in recently
Error 403.
I'm surprised no one talks about their overrated "engineering" section showing the chassis as if it's some piece of work from heaven, but in reality their welding quality is absolutely pathetic and even a 12 year old could do a better job than this:
https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd....
Absolutely, it's incredible how Ferrari is able to rich dullards. Mclaren would sell you an engineering masterpiece for half that price.
That link is from 3-years ago and not related to this new EV.
So, we just discard someone's workmanship history and dump $x,00,000 just because of the brand value? 3 years ago but still relevant for a company who charges $500k for such poor workmanship. This is acceptable from a normal manufacturer like Hyundai (which ironically has much, much better welding standards), not from a luxury car company.
"we don't want your electric car, we want your car, but electric!"
Jony must have got bored of hanging in North Beach with Sam Altman ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
What a disgrace
I love it, first ferarri that i have said "I want one". I have been an ev driver for over a decade and have no regrets, it has improved my life. The mental health benefits of driving an almost silent vehicle are completely over looked, the addiction to a vibrating noisy gas engine we find quite frankly bizarre in 2026, it is old technology, outdated, and becoming lost in history and thank you to the lithium cell.
Yawn.
dumbest car i've seen this year
Where is the car? All I see is a mock up dashboard that doesn't look very tangible. What does it look like? What does it sound like? What is it like to sit in the cockpit? How does it drive? This seems quite important to selling sports cars to me. This could almost be a commercial for selling for a perfume. Ow noes! No indicator stalks. No need to navigate roundabouts for Ferrari drivers. Going around corners is way too much fun for this car. It is Tesla all over again :S
What a letdown.
After having spent (way too much) time in automotive interior and UI-design and leaving the field based on the realization that classic car design organisations across almost all manufacturers are mostly driven by "aesthetics" and gimmicky "tech"-quirks but do not seem to care about actual usability and utility, i had high hopes that Ive would be the one to come up with an interior that actually makes sense.
This might be harsh, but I'm afraid, this will have the same effect on the car industry as Liquid Glass will spill nonsensical decoration for effect's sake across software outside of Apple, taking years to clean up.
Starting with the Steering wheel - Indicators as buttons, really? Then the control modules on the wheel: Good luck figuring out how to use the ACC. Zero buttons for Volume, Prev/Next or even OK/Cancel to navigate anything - meaning you'll have to take your hands off the wheel for almost everything.
Plus, it's a very thin rim and for a performance car not the best choice IMHO.
Good thing though there's ginormous paddles for "torque control". </s>
The instrument cluster is a giant housing for three display areas that are anything but modern, aka Retrobore and in some cases not very good or clear - eg. tire pressure or the three scales in the power dial per mode that are very similar and probably too technical for most users.
I hope there's going to be some customization.
For the head unit itself, while it's nice having the option to swivel the unit it seems overengineered for a secondary feature.
While I'm happy to see physical switches and a rotary dial, the choice for what is being used as switches seems not ideal since the length of the switches might make it hard to use. People won't feel a shape/form and press it, but rather have to put in some muscular effort to hit the switch from the top or bottom and at the right angle - even if you can rest your palm on the handle of the unit.
As for visual design within the UI it almost seems unfinished and not very polished, let alone "luxurious" - especially the climate control screen.
Overall a missed opportunity that carries on the clutter we see today coming out of car manufacturers and neglects core utility in the automotive context.
It's neither focused and clean like most Apple products have been designed nor very emotional or even close to being "Ferrari".
It's the same problem as with everything automotive interior today (and for way too long already):
Decisions driven by automotive-/industrial designers who are caring for sculptural appearances first.
I sincerely hope that at some point we can see this as a chapter from the past - at a point in time where the DRIVER/passengers and ACTUAL utility are paramount and developed with software (and it's established rules about usabililty and affordance) being an integral part.
To add some more snark: Maybe Ive should care less about being chauffered in a Bentley and spend some actual time behind the wheel.
Showing myself out now.
</rant>
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I think I would be looking for that very real, confident and perfectly even vibration a Ferrari has at idle; the valve train song, an extra octave in the exhaust.
Wow in 2026, I got downvoted on Hacker News for liking the viscerally-appealing aspects of a classic Ferrari. Is nothing sacred?
Unfortunately for a lot of performance and luxury oriented Car manufacturers, EVs are a death trap - since they don't have access to any special battery chemistry, the drivetrain is basically a commodity - you can get more HP from Xiaomi than you can get from a Ferrari. Any advatages / weight savings around say carbon chassis will be negligible and probably more of a nuisance in daily driving.
Moreover the battery will degrade over time so it's not a good long term investment (unlike ICE cars where 100 year old machines still run fine). I'm sure there will still be some buyers but the margins are going to get squeezed and the Rich Oil Sheikh will reconsider their purchasing choices when it gets overtaken by a Chinese EV equivalent at 1/10th of the price. I really don't see how Ferrari can support its brand with a toy car like this.
> Rich Oil Sheikh will reconsider their purchasing choices when it gets overtaken by a Chinese EV equivalent at 1/10th of the price.
A car that John Doe can afford to buy isn’t a status symbol. Why would a rich oil sheik buy that?
They’ll want something that signals wealth.
There's more to this kind of a car the torque and straight-line speed. Take a look at this Tesla Model 3 Performance on the Nürburgring https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tdhYevUGwM, the brakes are overheated after a few minutes of driving.