Back in October of last year, Ferrari announced the Elettrica, its soon-to-be first ever EV. That being said, the prancing horse brand didn’t actually revealed what the car looks like. More recently, the company has renamed its upcoming EV to the Luce (“light” in Italian). It is continuing to not reveal what the car looks like, though it has teased elements of its interior instead.
Per the Ferrari press release, the company has worked with LoveFrom – the creative collective co-founded by Jony Ive and now an OpenAI subsidiary – for the past five years. The collaboration between the two is claimed to be encompassing “every dimension of the new car’s design”. That being said, the luxury sports car maker is only showing bits of its interior for now. And yes, what is shown looks more like the things you’d see in a game’s concept art, rather than the actual interior.
At a glance, just about everything looks very Apple-y. This is mainly due to the rounded corners, especially on the 10.12-inch pivoting infotainment display and 12.86-inch instrument cluster, the OLED panel of which is provided by Samsung. The latter also has a physical needle here, on an otherwise digital gauge. Actually, ditto the former, with the clock on the top right corner also capable of being a stopwatch or a compass.
Looks Very Apple-y
Which brings us somewhat to the steering wheel. You have a knob on each side of it, which handles things like cruise control, ADAS and driving modes. Then you have buttons that look to be turn signals, which is immediately irritating when you think about real-world, off-track driving situations like navigating a roundabout.
Finally, there are the flappy paddles at the back. These are not for actually shifting gears up or down, since the Ferrari Luce is an EV after all. Instead, this gives you manual torque control, with a torque meter also showing above the speedometer indicating the best time to increase torque levels. So ultimately it’s still a kind of gear shifter in practice. Top Gear also reports that the left paddle also governs regenerative braking. Fitting for if it’s going to be the downshift paddle.
Another element that makes the inside of the Ferrari Luce very Apple-y is the presence of Corning Gorilla Glass. Engadget reports that there are 40-odd pieces scattered throughout the cockpit, but probably most prominent is the shifter on the centre console.
No doubt there’s a particular image that Ferrari and LoveFrom are trying to evoke with this imagery of the Luce. Or at least its interior. Some of this impractical whimsy – like the turn signal being buttons rather than a stalk – is very on brand, if nothing else. But maybe it’s due to Ive’s long history, everything with a screen screams either iPhone or iPad. Or maybe that’s just something I associate with Ive simply due to said history.
Either way though, Ferrari says that it will finally show what the Luce looks like in May. Or to quote the press release, the company will be doing the “exterior reveal”.
(Source: Ferrari [1], [2], Top Gear, Engadget)
