Ferrari CEO defends Luce EV design as 'true innovation is never democratic'

Benedetto Vigna, Ferrari's chief executive, arrived in India this week with a car that nobody asked for and a philosophy to match. The Luce, the company's first all-electric vehicle, debuted near Rome in May to a reception that ranged from puzzled to hostile. Ferrari's stock fell 8.4 percent the day after the reveal. Luca di Montezemolo, the company's former chairman, warned publicly that Ferrari risked destroying its own myth. Five months later, standing before the car's India debut at the Yashobhoomi convention center, Vigna offered no apologies and no revisions. "True innovation is never democratic," he said. "If all the people see innovation, then you call it production."

The Luce carries a design by LoveFrom, the studio founded by Jony Ive, the former Apple designer, and Marc Newson. It produces 1,035 horsepower from four electric motors and carries a 122-kilowatt-hour battery rated for roughly 529 kilometers of range. But the car's visual language—its proportions, its surfaces, the way it sits—broke with what Ferrari buyers expected. Vigna's defense rested not on the design itself but on a principle: that a leader must push limits forward or become a follower. He believed the car would win people over in person, that the two-dimensional images circulating online did not capture what the metal conveyed. "The 2D pictures or video do not do it justice," he said. It is an article of faith at Maranello, Ferrari's home, that a Ferrari must be experienced physically to be truly understood.

Beneath the design argument lay a deeper technical story. In 2018 and 2019, Ferrari had filed a patent for a system that seemed to belong to science fiction: compressed-air jets that could be fired at pressures of 700 to 900 bar—hundreds of times the pressure inside a car tire—to enhance grip, cornering, braking, and acceleration. A jet pointing upward would push the car down onto the road. Side jets would resist the forces that throw a car outward in a turn. A front jet would aid braking; a rear jet would assist acceleration. A jet beneath the floor would speed the air flowing under the car, lowering pressure and pulling the vehicle toward the pavement. The system would weigh roughly 40 to 45 kilograms and would recharge its air tank through a compressor driven by the wheels during braking, recovering energy that would otherwise dissipate as heat.

Ferrari filed the patent first in Italy on December 27, 2018, then in the United States a year later, on December 23, 2019, under the title "High-Performance Car with Gas Pushers." The U.S. patent was published in July 2020 and later granted. Around the same time, Elon Musk announced plans to install SpaceX thrusters on Tesla's Roadster. Automotive websites reported Ferrari's patent in 2023, but Vigna's comments this week marked the first time the company had confirmed the technology on the record. The physics was identical to what Tesla demonstrated on Thursday, when its second-generation Roadster hopped over five vehicles using compressed-air thrusters. But the intent diverged completely. Tesla aimed for spectacle—the car leaving the ground. Ferrari aimed for grip—the car staying planted, cornering and accelerating harder at the moment when tires reach the edge of their adhesion.

When asked about Tesla's demonstration, Vigna outlined the test Ferrari applies to any new technology: Does it deliver unique emotion and driving thrill, or is it merely sensational? "What is important is that we understand if the technology we bring forward is a technology that delivers unique emotion, driving thrill, or something that is more on the sensational side," he said. "When you develop technology, you start from the human beings. If you start from the technology per se, you may forget [its intent]." It was a distinctly Ferrari answer, rooted in the belief that engineering serves the driver's experience, not the other way around.

On the Luce's commercial prospects, Vigna reported that orders were arriving from multiple countries and were "particularly strong" in China, where buyers had grown accustomed to electric vehicles. All 88 cars allocated to China in the first release sold out on launch day in June. He positioned the Luce not as a wholesale pivot but as an addition to Ferrari's portfolio—the company was adding an electric car to its sports car range, not switching entirely to electric. When asked why rival supercar manufacturers were slowing their electric-vehicle programs, Vigna declined to criticize them. "Technology can move fast. Human beings move slower," he said. "Each client will select the preferred way."

Vigna also spoke about Ferrari's expansion in India and Asia more broadly. He noted that a free trade agreement between India and the European Union was good news for the company. He mentioned that Ferrari already employed Indian colleagues who contributed significantly to its work, and he was meeting students from the Indian Institutes of Technology and other universities during his visit, impressed by their energy and optimism. He borrowed a Hindi phrase—"Hoga Kaise Nahin?" (Why won't it happen?)—to describe Ferrari's approach to the region, attributing it to the determination he encountered there. On the question of autonomous driving, Vigna expressed confidence that self-driving technology would not eliminate the desire to drive. Ferrari produces roughly 14,000 cars annually in a world of 8 billion people. For those who want emotion and experience, he said, driving oneself remains essential. At Maranello, he noted, nearly every car on the production line is different, assembled largely by hand. Only one robot performs a single task: placing the windscreen on the frame. Everything else is human skill.