Jony Ive has responded to criticism of the Ferrari Luce by defending the decisions behind Maranello’s first electric car. Speaking at Wave by Vento in Turin on October 7, the former Apple design chief explained that standing apart from other cars only has value when it produces a better product. He said his LoveFrom studio followed that principle throughout its work with Ferrari.
Jony Ive responds to Ferrari Luce criticism and urges people to see it in person
The discussion at OGR also revealed how the idea of an electric Ferrari first emerged. John Elkann recalled a walk with Jeff Bezos in July 2016, when the Amazon founder encouraged him to seriously consider building an electric Ferrari. Bezos approached the subject from the perspective of innovation, prompting Elkann to explore an idea that eventually developed into the Luce project.
LoveFrom began by studying Ferrari rather than immediately designing the car. Ive said his team spent almost a year learning about the company’s history and culture before starting a five-year development process shared between California and Maranello. The Luce unveiled in May emerged from that collaboration, which brought together creative professionals with backgrounds far beyond the traditional automotive industry.
Those different influences also shaped the cabin, where the team deliberately moved away from using touchscreens as the main way to control the car. Ive believes that placing almost every function on a digital surface weakens the physical relationship between people and objects. The Luce therefore relies heavily on buttons, rotary controls and other tactile elements that provide physical feedback as the driver uses them.
Glass and metal join leather throughout the interior to reinforce that approach. Screens still play an important role, but physical controls complement them and offer different sensations to the touch. The electric architecture also gave the designers more freedom to rethink interior space compared with Ferraris built around combustion engines.
The exterior has generated much more divided reactions. Ive argues that people should see the Ferrari Luce in person before judging its design, because photographs can create a very different impression from the actual car. Ferrari displayed a Luce in Turin, where Reuters reported that numerous visitors lined up to take a closer look.
Elkann added that Ferrari never set out to provoke people simply for the sake of doing something different. The strong reactions have not weakened the company’s confidence in the project. Instead, Ferrari sees Luce as a way to introduce electric propulsion while creating something new for a brand that has spent decades building its identity around combustion engines.