Ferrari tortured us before finally revealing what might be the most significant model of a generation: their first battery-electric vehicle. Previously nicknamed simply “Elettrica”, the car received its official christening during an event atop San Francisco’s TransAmerica Pyramid. Ferrari chairman John Elkann decided that calling it merely “the electric Ferrari” would be desperately reductive. The official name: Luce.
“Luce is light” Elkann explained, “and its meaning is multiple: it gives you a sense of future, lightness, speed, novelty”. One wonders if Ferrari considered any four-letter words, especially given the partnership behind this project. The company joined forces with LoveFrom, the design studio co-founded in 2019 by Jony Ive, Apple’s chief design officer for three decades, responsible for the iMac, MacBook, iPod, iPhone, and iPad, and industrial designer Marc Newson, creator of Ford’s 1999 021C concept. Both are known for their “less is more” design philosophy, so the simple four-letter moniker undoubtedly appealed to them.
We know the interior design and technology, but the exterior remains hidden until May. Yet the real question lingers: what should a Ferrari EV look, feel, and sound like? How does Ferrari transmit its emotional identity when the sensory signals change fundamentally?
About LoveFrom, the firm isn’t a consultancy but rather an atelier with a restricted clientele emphasizing craftsmanship, culture, and tradition without self-promotion. Neither Ive nor Newson needs to work; they founded LoveFrom to do what they love. “Who I work with is more important than what I work on”, Ive said during the unveiling of what his team developed for Luce’s interior styling.
Newson, despite being a car enthusiast, has only one automobile in his portfolio: that aforementioned Ford 021C. The two previously collaborated on the Apple Watch design. Now they’re tackling Ferrari’s most emotionally risky and culturally sensitive project. A vehicle that Ferrari, a brand building cultural artifacts rather than mere “transportation,” trusts to experts who’ve never designed a car like this before.
Ferrari’s decision isn’t about “design outsourcing” but rather “engaging a creative consciousness”. Whether that consciousness can answer the philosophical questions surrounding an electric prancing horse remains the billion-dollar question.
