Ferrari Needed To Make An EV. Then They Determined It Will not Be A Supercar

Whereas Ferrari is cagey about what actual kind its first electrical automotive will take, executives made one factor clear: It won’t change supercars just like the 296 or 12Cilindri.

“This automotive shouldn’t be one thing that replaces one other automotive or product. It’s an addition,” Ferrari Chief Product Growth Officer Gianmaria Fulgenzi informed InsideEVs this week at a tech preview occasion for its upcoming EV, tentatively dubbed the Electrical.

In feedback to reporters throughout an occasion on the firm’s new sustainable manufacturing facility, Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna additionally emphasised that the corporate should grasp “all applied sciences.” However Vigna and Fulgenzi additionally famous that, if Ferrari goes to deliver a brand new know-how to a phase, it needs to be setting a brand new benchmark in its class. And, based on Fulgenzi, EV know-how shouldn’t be fairly able to redefine the supercar market.

“We noticed that with the perfect parts and technical potentialities in 2026 or 2028 for the market, when it comes to dimensions, to be the perfect automotive with an electrical powertrain, we see that an electrical car for a two-seater sports activities automotive wasn’t a game-changer when it comes to structure and base physics,” he stated.

He’s not alone on this opinion. Our colleagues at Motor1 not too long ago wrote that “no one desires an electrical supercar,” based mostly partly on feedback from Mate Rimac. His firm, Rimac, vaulted onto the scene with a 1,914-horsepower hypercar. But it surely struggled to draw clients.

Photograph by: Ralph Hermens

A part of that’s the new model, however the different half is the “base physics” Fulgenzi referred to.

Whereas electrical automobiles have one principal physics benefit—easy, on the spot torque with mainly limitless energy—they’ve an arguably greater drawback. They’re heavy. Lightweighting know-how is essential within the supercar house, as a result of it lets you make a automotive that handles higher, feels extra energetic and responds extra aggressively. It’s additionally a lot more durable to make a heavy automotive as communicative as a light-weight sports activities automotive, because the heavy weight of electrical efficiency automobiles necessitates extra energy steering help and heavier-duty suspension parts.

It’s not not possible to make a great-driving EV. However probably the most participating EV I’ve pushed—a Taycan Turbo—doesn’t maintain a candle to a fuel Mazda Miata or hybrid Ferrari 296. The upcoming electrical Porsche 718 Boxster and Cayman could change that, however for now, there’s a motive why Porsche’s first EV was a sedan, and why different supercar producers like Lamborghini and McLaren aren’t diving into the electrical supercar market. Ferrari is studying from the identical tea leaves.

The corporate’s decisions are “pushed by our clients,” Fulgenzi stated. “Our clients up to now love for a particular type of automotive, a two-seater, particularly with an inside combustion engine. With a V-12, for instance, within the entrance.”

That’s why the corporate is dedicated to pure inside combustion, hybrid and electrical merchandise for the “foreseeable future,” its CEO says. For now, it’s making use of pure electrical know-how to the phase the place it makes probably the most sense: bigger grand touring automobiles.

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Supply: Ferrari

The corporate’s decisions are “pushed by our clients,” Fulgenzi stated. “Our clients up to now love for a particular type of automotive, a two-seater, particularly with an inside combustion engine. With a V-12, for instance, within the entrance.”

That’s why the corporate is dedicated to pure inside combustion, hybrid and electrical merchandise for the “foreseeable future,” its CEO says. For now, it’s making use of pure electrical know-how to the phase the place it makes probably the most sense: bigger grand touring automobiles.

“You may have an enormous automotive with the identical agility of a automotive that’s smaller, so you may take pleasure in 4 seats as a substitute with the identical agility and delight of a two-seater,” Fulgenzi informed me.

However with at present’s know-how, the advantages of this type of setup diminish because the automotive will get smaller. Whereas the Elettrica’s principal purpose will likely be to disguise and work round its 5,000-plus-pound weight, the sports activities automobiles are centered on eliminating weight totally.

“You must do that with (dimensions) which might be, let me say, large enough,” Fulgenzi stated. “In any other case the chance to enhance the efficiency or the driving thrills are strict. Very, very poor, let me say.”

Ferrari, nevertheless, isn’t any stranger to electrification. Its F80 is a limited-production hybrid supercar, the most recent of many for the reason that LaFerrari launched in 2013.

Photograph by: Ferrari

The chief stopped in need of blaming any particular limiting issue of EV design. However based mostly on the Elettrica’s 122-kilowatt-hour battery and 300-mile vary, the corporate is clearly as involved as mainstream producers with delivering sufficient vary. If that’s a requirement, then it’s clear the place the issue lies.

“(Fulgenzi) was clear. This isn’t a supercar. As a result of the battery chemistry shouldn’t be there to make a supercar,” Vigna, the CEO, informed reporters.

When will it get there? Neither government was clear. Fulgenzi admitted that it was attainable with out a solid-state battery. And a slide on a presentation appeared to suggest that the corporate’s new V-8 two-door grand tourer, the Amalfi, might be succeeded by an electrical automotive. However no one desires to say when.

“We’ll see,” Fulgenzi stated.

Contact the writer: mack.hogan@insideevs.com