Ferrari 'dead serious' about SUV

Ferrari’s global kingpin has seemingly pulled the mother of all backflips, confirming the venerable Italian marque will produce an SUV after all.

Barely 12 months on from exclaiming “you’d have to shoot me first” before Ferrari spun out a production high-rider, Sergio Marchionne told reporters at the New York Stock Exchange this week that the firm is “dead serious” about an SUV.

In typical Ferrari fashion, the longstanding SUV category will seemingly be re-defined by the ‘FUV’ or Ferrari Utility Vehicle, Marchionne trumpeted.

“We’re dead serious about this,” he explained.

“We need to learn how to master this whole new relationship between exclusivity and scarcity of product, then we’re going to balance this desire to grow with a widening of the product portfolio.”

Contrary to other luxury manufacturers such as Bentley and Porsche, which have used SUVs to balloon global production and sales, Marchionne indicated Ferrari’s SUV strategy would still be based on that of exclusivity – having more orders than production availability.

An FUV would mark a significant diversion in Ferrari’s philosophy, seemingly arriving as the first four-door in the line-up and the only semblance of practical everyday motoring outside the firm’s existing GTC4Lusso range.

The timing of Marchionne’s announcement points to a possible 2019 arrival – around the same time Lamborghini’s highly anticipated Urus SUV reaches the market.