Autoblog and Yahoo may earn commission from links in this article.The first-ever all-electric Ferrari was revealed a month ago, and it's been the subject of an endless stream of hate and vitriol. But according to the automaker's global marketing boss, Emanuele Carando, this extreme reaction was a good thing. Speaking with Edmunds, Carando said, "Being a marketing director, I was very pleased. Ferrari is such a loved marque that belongs to everybody, and everybody has a right to say something about it. Still, whenever you develop something new, the novelty scares everybody."The responses to the Luce have been brutal, whether they come from potential customers Ferrari is courting or the brand's former chairman, Luca di Montezemolo, and while Carando is playing it cool, he concedes that the backlash was worse than expected.Ferrari Is Surprised At How Hated Its $650k EV IsFerrariCarando said that Ferrari was "expecting a strong reaction, a very polarizing reaction, [but] we didn't expect such a magnitude." In other words, while Carando seems to think there's no such thing as bad publicity, nobody at the company expected so many people worldwide to respond negatively to the Luce, which is said to start at $647,000. He then went on to justify the Luce's design, led by LoveFrom, saying that Ferrari could have created an electric Purosangue, but thought "that would not have been the right decision," adding that the Luce is "a spacious car with a very short front hood, which allows the driver to be very close to front axle, allowing you to have incredible precision in entering curves." He then argued that the Purosangue, Ferrari's first utility vehicle, was also the subject of negative impressions when it was launched, though he admitted that "the magnitude was not the same."AdvertisementAdvertisementRelated: Ferrari 12Cilindri Manuale Debuts As a Limited Edition V12 with Koenigsegg's Wildest IdeaIt seems, then, that Ferrari is aware of how badly the Luce has been received, but rather than admit a mistake, the company is taking the stance that the EV's unique aesthetic will yield driving benefits and grow on the world over time. The first may well be true, but the second assertion? That seems unlikely. At least the Purosangue is good-looking for an SUV, and its V12 does the heavy lifting for the bits that detractors don't like. With the Luce, we still don't understand why Ferrari couldn't have created an EV that is both cleverly designed and beautiful to look at.At Least The Luce Will Not Be Obligatory for Ferrari CollectorsFerrariThere have been unsubstantiated reports that Ferrari customers looking to have the opportunity of securing an allocation of a future special vehicle, like the 12Cilindri Manuale, for example, would have to buy the Luce to curry favor with Maranello. Before Ferrari Chief Marketing Officer Enrico Galliera left the company last month, he rubbished these reports, and Carando backed his former colleague up, saying Ferrari has come up with a "complex algorithm that, in a very objective way, prioritizes cliesnts" for access to limited-run vehicles. Public relations head Alessandro Vaccari concurred: "We never have a bundling strategy of 'if you buy this, you get that' ... [but] we do count [and] take an algorith of every interaction you have with the brand, and that gives us a fair way to put a client in the system and define top VIPs."Again, we can't help but wonder how much easier selling an EV would have been for Ferrari if it had created something attractive, but as I've noted elsewhere on this site, perhaps the conspiracy is that Ferrari wants the Luce to fail so it can argue against any EV mandates. "Look, lawmakers: We tried to sell an EV, but nobody wanted it, and if we're forced to do so exclusively, an iconic Italian manufacturer and employer will fall apart."AdvertisementAdvertisementThis story was originally published by Autoblog on Jul 14, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Autoblog as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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