How Ferrari backflipped on its anti-EV stance

ENZO FERRARI was an engine man through and through. The old adage that with Ferrari, you bought an engine and got a car thrown in for free wasn’t always that far wide of the mark. The old man once even claimed that aerodynamics are for people who can’t build engines. All of which makes the prospect of a Ferrari without an internal combustion engine probably the most radical and controversial moment in the marque’s history.

Yet that’s exactly what is set to occur in 2025, when Ferrari will launch its first electric vehicle. Controversial? We only have to spool back to 2006 when then-chairman Sergio Marchionne said that, “with Ferrari, (an EV) is almost an obscene concept,” before he added “you’d have to shoot me first.” Unfortunately, events subsequently intervened.

Now it forms a key pillar of a product onslaught from Maranello. CEO John Elkann informed the company’s shareholders at its AGM that “We are continuing to execute our electrification strategy in a highly disciplined way. We are also very excited about our first all-electric Ferrari that we plan to unveil in 2025, and you can be sure this will be everything you dream the engineers and designers at Maranello can imagine for such a landmark in our history,” Elkann said.

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It has been speculated that it will be a version of Ferrari’s forthcoming Purosangue SUV, known internally as Project F175; the first pure EV from Maranello. This would offer the company a more acceptable way to introduce an EV than an electric supersports model, but both coronavirus and the global semiconductor shortage have delayed schedules. Two EV versions, codenamed F244 and F245 were slated to appear in 2024 and 2025 respectively, but those plans look to have shifted back a year.

An 800hp V12 and a hybridised V8 model, using a version of the SF90 Stradale’s powertrain, are likely to appear in the interim, with the Purosangue scheduled for launch next year.

“The new CEO and the senior management team will share Ferrari’s exciting future with you in 2022, which will also be a year of important new product launches and particularly the Purosangue which is turning out to be something truly special,” Elkann confirmed, before revealing that three new models were soon to be launched.

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These are expected to be an exclusive version of the 812 Superfast, Ferrari’s 522kW V6-powered entry-level supercar and a ‘special’ which could well be Project SP42, the long-mooted F40 tribute car.

Given that the last limited-run halo, the LaFerrari, launched eight years ago, the timing seems right for a new hypercar to go head to head with the best from McLaren, Porsche, Aston Martin and Lamborghini.
- AE