Ferrari presented Pope Leo XIV with a steering wheel from the new Luce. The Pontiff asked the Italian brand’s chairman if the Luce was its first sedan. Shares fell after the reveal, though the stock has since started to recover. Ferrari is making a big hoopla about the Luce, its first-ever electric car. However, in the days since the vehicle’s unveiling, it’s not the fact that it doesn’t sip a drop of gasoline that’s generated headlines, but rather the controversial design. To say the reception to it has been frosty would be an understatement, and it doesn’t appear as though even Pope Leo XIV can get excited about it. As part of the global premiere of Luce, Ferrari visited the Pope in Castel Gandolfo, a tiny hillside town he calls home when he’s not in Vatican City. A white-and-black Luce was presented to the Pope by Ferrari chairman John Elkann and chief executive Benedetto Vigna. Read: The Swiss Are Supposed To Be Neutral, But Even Toblerone’s Trolling Ferrari In a video shared by Ferrari from the visit, Pope Leo XIV is seen touring the electric Luce. Perhaps he’s not a car guy, but when Ferrari lifts the covers, he doesn’t appear particularly enamored, and we can’t blame him. Shortly before jumping behind the wheel, he asks if this is the “first four-door Ferrari,” which obviously it isn’t. Elkann confirms that it is the company’s first five-seater model. Even the head of the Catholic Church needed a moment to figure out what he was looking at. A Ferrari With A Twist Photos Ferrari The Luce is also the first Ferrari styled by an outside firm, specifically the design company led by Jony Ive, the former head of design at Apple. Whether Ferrari is comfortable with that arrangement now is another question. The car’s unveiling wiped more than $3 billion off the company’s market value, though the share price has begun clawing back ground over the past day. Ferrari didn’t leave the Pope empty-handed. Rather than gifting him the car, the company presented Leo XIV with the Luce’s leather-and-aluminum three-spoke steering wheel, displayed in a clear case. If Ferrari set out to get people talking with the Luce, then it’s certainly achieved that. The company has been candid that the Luce isn’t aimed at its traditional customer base, targeting instead young, ultra-high-net-worth buyers who have never owned a Ferrari before. Whether that audience is more enthusiastic about the styling than the Pope was remains to be seen.
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