Why I’m already disappointed with the Ferrari Elettrica

I know, I know, you can never really be disappointed with a Ferrari. I’d rather cry in a Ferrari than in a Lamborghini, even it would be hard to pick one. And to be fair, I probably wouldn’t turn away a fully electric Ferrari either. But when I read through the specs that were published last week, I still was disappointed. I expected a bit more than what the Elettrica, which is what it’s called, is going to be.

Let me take you through the specs very quickly: it’s a Lucid Air Grand Touring with a bit more power and a larger battery pack, but less range. This comparison is very relevant, because the new Ferrari will be a four door car which is very friendly to families and friends.

And while the specs are not bad at all, they are not what one would expect from a brand spanking new Italian supercar (we can’t call it a supercar according to Ferrari). I mean, there was an opportunity here to show what an EV made by Ferrari could be. Instead the marque chose a very middle of the road, maybe even Chinese-like, approach.

The first thing that caught my attention was the range of a bit over 500 km. That is nothing special at all. And it’s not like there is a huge amount of horsepowers being traded in for a bit of range, because the Elettrica will have only about 1.000 hp. The huge 122 kWh-battery pack can only be partially blamed for the lack of range: it’s contributing a lot to the 2.300 kg kerb weight.

And that makes it the heaviest Ferrari ever. It will be about 100 kgs heavier than the Purosangue, which is of course a four door SUV with quite a large engine in the front.

I feel this is where Ferrari could’ve done more. I think the car should‘ve weighed a lot less, but the engineers probably didn’t want to say no and added not only a huge battery pack, but also four electric motors and after that never really tried to get the most out of all of them together because they knew they didn’t have to.

By that I mean that Ferrari is kind of being smart with the Elettrica as well. We all know nobody is buying fully electric super- and hypercars. Branding the new Italian EV as a four door family loving sedan sets it apart from the rest, and therefore also from what you might expect from the brand. It also makes that if the EV fails, which it wont, it doesn’t really rub off on name and the other cars the marquee makes.

In the end it seems like the Italians know their marketing and positioning. They also know this upcoming car will sell, even if it is to people that want to stay on the good side of the brand and be able to buy a rarer model in the future. The strategic choices made for the Elettrica are very much to test the EV-waters safely. And that also disappoints me a bit.

In other news

Renault is claiming it’s making a non-China made EV which will hit the market at less than 20K. The French are even claiming it will be very desirable. That is where I press X for doubt. There has never been a Renault that I’ve found desirable, let alone an electric one. It might look good, but it still is a French car. That should be a warning in itself.

The Chinese government might be on to something with maybe outlawing retracting door handles. This weekend a Xiaomi SU7 caught fire on the side of a highway with people inside which couldn’t get out. Passers by that tried to lend a hand, couldn’t open the doors either. Xiaomi has yet to release a statement about what went wrong in the car.

Let’s keep going on about safety, because that black strap you click in to a lock next to your chair when you get in a car has been named one of the best inventions ever. Time magazine has determined we should all be very thankful for the Swedes at Volvo for coming up with the idea for a seatbelt. Weirdly, the retracting door handles were nowhere to be found on the list…