2025 Ferrari EV to be “a true Ferrari”

Ferrari says its first EV will be “a true Ferrari” – including its sound and performance – when it’s revealed next year.

Despite what is looming as the biggest change ever for the 77-year-old Italian car-maker, the company is adamant that a Ferrari powered by the near-silence of electricity will offer all the driving thrills and aural excitement of one fed with premium unleaded.

“The new electric Ferrari vehicle is going to be a true Ferrari,” said Ferrari’s global marketing director Emanuele Carando in a recent interview with Australian journalists.

“Yes, it will have sound,” said Carando. “You will see – well, you will hear,” he added when quizzed on how the sound would be produced, saying it would be “authentic”.

Whereas some brands are perfectly suited to switching to electricity – Rolls-Royce being the most obvious, with near-silence and oodles of torque being hallmarks of the British luxury brand since its inception – for Ferrari there are larger challenges, including noise.

Ferrari nominates the sound of its cars as one of five brand pillars that help create its all-important driving thrills – the others are longitudinal acceleration, lateral acceleration, braking and gear shifting – and that’s something that has no doubt kept the innovative Maranello engineers busy (although gear shifting could be another challenge…).

While Ferrari’s first hybrid was the 2013 LaFerrari limited-edition hypercar, followed by the 2019 SF90 hypercar and the new V6-powered 296 supercar, one thing that won’t be an issue is making an all-electric Ferrari go quickly.

Already we’re seeing huge leaps in EV performance from brands that have previously relied only on fossil fuels.

The most powerful and fastest accelerating Porsche, for example, is the upcoming flagship Turbo GT version of the all-electric Taycan, which produces up to 815kW of power and is claimed to hit 100km/h in just 2.1 seconds.

Despite decades of petrol-powered 911s – still the heartbeat of the German brand – Porsche has wholeheartedly embraced electricity and its supercar rivals such as Ferrari and Lamborghini will be forced to follow as they respond to tightening regulations around the world by lowering their fleet-wide emissions.

Carando said the details of the Ferrari EV haven’t yet been finalised, but he indicated the emphasis is not on top speed or outright acceleration.

“I don’t know whether the EV is going to be faster than SF90,” he said, referencing the hybrid supercar that became Ferrari’s most powerful road car by teaming a twin-turbo V8 with three electric motors to make about 750kW.

“The 0-100[km/h], the 0-200, after you do a couple of times acceleration you’ve got this gulp in your mouth, you’re fed up with it.

“You want to have fast, agile, fun car to drive.”

That said, it’s difficult to imagine the first pure-electric Ferrari not blasting away from a standstill with more enthusiasm than any of its V8 or V12 stablemates – or even the V6-powered 296.

But Ferrari clearly wants to keep some of its powder dry until the all-important new model is revealed in 2025 and, whatever form Ferrari’s first EV takes, it will no doubt spur heated debate.

For everything you auto know about EVs, listen to carsales' Watts Under the Bonnet: the electric car podcast

Join the conversation at our Facebook page
Or email us at editor@carsales.com.au