Ferrari’s stock fell nearly eight per cent Tuesday morning, one day after unveiling its first fully electric passenger vehicle, called the Luce — which starts at US$640,000, or roughly $884,000 in Canadian dollars.
The Italian automaker has long been known for its high-performance vehicles and racing history, but they have almost always been exclusively gas-powered.
So what’s going on?
This also comes as recent data shows demand for electric and hybrid-electric vehicles is surging following the renewal of consumer incentives in Canada and with gas prices skyrocketing amid the war in Iran.
Previous Ferrari executives and company leaders had long dismissed the idea of an electric Ferrari in the future, but that appears to be changing.
“It just sends a little bit of jitters through some investors.”
Winder adds that a similar situation happened several years ago when Harley-Davidson launched an electric motorcycle, which led to some backlash from those who felt the brand wasn’t synonymous with anything but gas-powered models.
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This eventually led Harley-Davidson to rebrand its electric offerings as Live Wire.
In Ferrari’s most recent earnings report from this month, CEO Benedetto Vigna suggested the Luce represented the brand’s evolution from traditional concepts.
“The Ferrari Luce brings together so much extraordinary technologies and the passion of so many people,” he said. “It is the evidence of how tradition and innovation can come together to create something unique.”
But not everyone agrees.
“Ferrari” was also trending on social media Tuesday, with many users voicing negative reactions. When it comes to the falling stock price, Winder says Ferrari may be looking to appeal to changing consumer demands, which can be a challenge for brands like Ferrari that have been somewhat resistant to change.
“If a brand doesn’t innovate and target new growing segments of the market for emerging customers, they risk losing out on those customers as they develop and move further down the life cycle,” he says.
“But if they innovate too quickly or they get it wrong, the design’s wrong, or they’re too radical, where they’re adding too many differences, then they could risk alienating not only the new consumer.
“Because no one wants to buy a car that people are dissing online.”
Ferrari going electric is just so, so very wrong! Unless they add a sound machine to give that Ferrari engine noise it aint’ going to fly.
And at $884,000 Cdn I doubt even one will be sold on this side of the Atlantic!?
Not only is it an zEV its ugly
Looks nothing like a Ferrari
At least make look like a Ferrari, rather than a Japanese car. Especially, at that price.
Like the Tesla Truck, the Fort E-150, the #-mach. So many cars are ending up on the unwanted lots. This is another. What person, serious enough about driving to put almost a million dollars into a car is going to want to have a heavy (batteries), distance limited, soundless, heap?
This reaction was 100% predictable.
No matter how much of our money the Liberals hand out, the demand for EV’s is dying, not surging. Even with higher gas prices, it is still cheaper, easier and safer to drive a gas vehicle.