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Jony Ive-Designed Ferrari Luce Tests CEO Benedetto Vigna’s EV Bet

Designed with Jony Ive and Marc Newson’s LoveFrom, Ferrari’s first EV is forcing the company to defend what a Ferrari should look like.

Ferrari launched its first all-electric vehicle, the Ferrari Luce, to a cacophony of criticism this week, leaving the storied brand stumbling. Following Monday’s launch, the stock dropped 8 percent and didn’t rebound until Thursday, when CEO Benedetto Vigna defended the Luce, saying that customer interest was “strong.” 

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What made the response so unusually broad outside of automotive circles is a specific quality of the Luce’s design failure, according to automotive design experts. Ferrari has always sold desire across class lines, and people who could never own one still had a relationship with the brand, through posters, racing and the simple fact that a Ferrari looks like nothing else on the road. Yet the Luce flattened the aesthetic while keeping the $600,000-plus price tag, enraging not only its own fans but the broader public as well. 

The backlash even reached Ferrari’s own past. Luca di Montezemolo, the company’s longest-serving........

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