Ferrari's Prius on the road within two years

A petrol-electric Ferrari could soon be more than motor show tease -- with a one-off hybrid special model in showrooms within two years.

Although the technology will likely be rolled out across the Ferrari range by the end of the decade, the car maker is considering a one-off special with unique design -- as Toyota did with the Prius -- to launch its hybrid power system.

When asked which model would be the first equipped with Ferrari's hybrid system, the company's chief engineer Roberto Fedeli told the Carsales Network: "Maybe FF, maybe some special car. We are doing something."

The Italian maker already has at least one hybrid-powered V12 test mule on the road -- in a 599 body, the same car it showed in Geneva -- and is in the final stages of developing its first hybrid system, according to Fedeli.

"We are close to the solution but we need one or two years more," Fedeli said. "The main problem we have is the weight. We have something like 160kg to 180kg [for the hybrid battery pack and electric motor] but this is too much. We are trying to reduce the weight with this kind of components to 100kg or 110kg."

He said Ferrari's objective was to create a hybrid sports car that weighed the same as a non-hybrid sports car.

"My objective is to build a car with a hybrid solution with the same weight as before," he said. "Hybrid for us you can improve performance and emissions, but we don't want to have so [much] weight."

So the company is also trying to trim 100kg from the structure of the car to balance the weight gained by the battery pack and electric motor.

He said Ferrari would likely debut its hybrid system on a V12 model because that is where the biggest improvements can be made to economy and emissions.

"We could start with the 12 cylinder because we need to reduce the emissions more than the 8 cylinder models. [But] when we think of a system like this we are also thinking for every car that we are building," he said.

He said the unique and compact all-wheel-drive system developed for the FF could form a part of a future Ferrari hybrid package.

"It's one of the solutions we are investigating," he said. "In this world it's very important to have on your desk more than one solution. We don't need to decide today … but it's very important that we have options."

Ferrari says it reinvests 17 per cent of its profits into research and development -- among the highest ratios in the car industry.

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