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Designed with Jony Ive, the luxury carmaker's first EV (the $640K Ferrari Luce) is pissing off OGs but the play for new buyers (under-40 tech, China) looks like a reasonable bet.

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Today, we will talk about the very controversial launch of the Ferrari Luce EV.

Also this week:

• IMAX’s random business line
• The Pope’s AI Encyclical
• …and them wild posts (including FB Marketplace)

PS. This is a longer newsletter with a lot of images and links. I've included the intro and some memes in the e-mail but read the whole thing here. 

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The Ferrari Luce was unveiled on Monday.

It is the luxury carmaker’s first all-electric vehicle and its first 5-seater. Starting at $640k, the car was created in collaboration with LoveFrom, the design firm run by Jony Ive, Marc Newson and dozens of former Apple employees that were bored of making the exact same smartphone (except with a slightly better camera) every year.

The internet is full of cynical trolls (*raise my hand*), so obviously the backlash was intense and immediate. We just went through this with the Audemars Piguet and Swatch collab.

But you don’t have to listen to the cheap seats.

Listen to Luca di Montezemolo. The Ferrari legend spent 28 years at the luxury carmaker including as Chairman during its modern “Golden Age” — from 1991 to 2014 — when its F1 team crushed and the brand became very exclusive.

He shared these thoughts when Italian media asked him about the Luce:

I don't like commenting from the stands. When I was in the game, it annoyed me when people did that. I think for now, the electric Ferrari could have been avoided. But clearly Ferrari made huge investments in plants and the car itself for their own reasons. Maybe Porsche's lesson is useful for reflection.

If I said what I really think, I'd harm Ferrari. We're risking the destruction of a myth. I'm very sorry about that. I hope they at least remove the Prancing Horse from that car. This is definitely a car the Chinese won’t copy.

Wow.

WOW!

Luca. Tell us how you really feel.

To be sure, Luca’s not exactly an unbiased observer. In 2011, he said Ferrari would “never” build an EV because he doubted the technology and preferred hybrids (which Ferrari has done). He also had an acrimonious split with its management and is on the board of Ferrari’s British rival McLaren.

However, the market channeled Luca’s disappointment with Ferrari’s incredible ticker (RACE) falling 8% the next day. It’s since recovered a bit and the market cap is $64B.

The initial reaction across tech and the auto world was largely negative, even as most of the people (*raise my other hand*) taking potshots will never own a Ferrari. Hell, the only time most of these people might even walk into a Ferrari dealership is because they had a massive kebab plate for lunch and really had to take a dump while walking down the street and it was the nearest storefront (*raise both my hands*).

Ferrari is one of the most iconic brands in the world, though. You don’t have to own one of its cars to love the Prancing Horse. There are 900 million F1 fans and Enzo Ferrari is a GOAT in the racing world and among luxury car brands.

In a pretty slick promo video with Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, Ferrari’s head of marketing Enrico Galliera knew what was coming with the Luce launch: “We’re going to have some great lovers. And a lot of haters.”

Sure enough, top comments on the YouTube video deliver on that promise: 1) “The boldest thing [about this Luce video], is leaving the comments open.”; 2) “I wonder if Lewis imagined that after joining Ferrari he would be asked to promote the iPhone car”; 3) “Blink Twice if you're in trouble”; and 4) “Oscar Worthy Performance From Lewis and Charles”.

But here is the reality: Ferrari only sold 13,640 cars in 2025. They don’t need to sell many Ferrari Luce EVs (Luce is Italian for “light”) for it to make business sense. There will be buyers and I imagine management baked a little bit of margin into that $640,000 price tag.

To see how this might play out, let’s cover these topics:

• Ferrari Luce’s Backstory
• Luce’s Design: Polarizing Exterior, Beautiful Interior
• The Luxury EV Market is Hurting
• Aiming for Tech and Chinese Buyers

Written by me, Trung Phan.

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