Ferrari Luce electric car sells for $40 million at Monterey auctionFerrari's first fully electric car sold for $40 million at a charity auction over the weekend, setting a record for the most expensive new car ever sold at auction. RM Sotheby's held the sale at Monterey Car Week in California, where it eclipsed a record from the previous August, when a bespoke Ferrari Daytona SP3 hammered at $26 million at the same venue, the company said.The car, designated "Chassis 0," is the first production unit of Ferrari's Luce program and was built as a one-of-a-kind Tailor Made model. The bespoke paintwork transitions between green and violet tones as light conditions change, while the interior features a leather and accent-color combination that Ferrari describes as appearing on a Luce cabin for the first time, according to Electrek. RM Sotheby's ran the lot without reserve and waived the buyer's premium. The car will return to Maranello for final assembly before delivery, expected in the first quarter of 2027. The buyer was not identified.All proceeds go to the Ferrari Foundation, which funds educational programs, the company said. Bidding opened against a pre-sale estimate of $1.1 million, according to Electrek, making the final hammer price roughly 36 times what the lot had been expected to bring.AdvertisementAdvertisementShares of Ferrari gained as much as 1.4% in Milan trading on Monday following the announcement. Heading into the weekend, the stock had already advanced somewhere between 12% and 13% for the year.The auction result follows a difficult debut for the Luce. When Ferrari unveiled the four-door, four-motor electric model in Rome in May, Ferrari stock fell as much as 7.8% in a single session. Critics compared its styling to mainstream EVs, and Ferrari replaced its marketing chief in the weeks that followed. Former Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo said the badge did not belong on the car.Even so, buyers claimed every car in the opening allocation — just under 500 vehicles — within two months of the Rome debut, all before Ferrari had handed over a single example to a customer. Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna said at the time of the launch that the model was drawing orders from both existing and new customers. "The Ferrari Luce has nothing to do with electric cars you have seen from other players," Vigna told Bloomberg.Ferrari raised its full-year guidance last month, citing stronger demand for limited-run models. The Luce lists at €550,000, or roughly $640,000, and was designed in collaboration with LoveFrom, the studio founded by Jony Ive, Apple's former design chief.