Rumours have been around for years of a Ferrari SUV, regular Hybrid, or Full EV. The last few years have seen some of the biggest changes to happen to the in the automotive world since the 1970s. Porsche discovered that they can still be a sports car manufacturer and sell more SUVs than the 911. Other brands caught on and now everyone from Alfa Romeo to Rolls Royce are selling SUVs. Well OK Rolls Royce have not launched theirs yet, but recently Lamborghini did heading straight to the top by producing the fastest SUV available.
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Perhaps the biggest change we have seen though is the charge led by Tesla, to do away with petrol engine cars and replace them with electric motors and batteries. It’s now not considered new technology anymore, and Green Norway is now finding that the bestselling BMW is in fact fully electric. It seems the world is moving away petrol.
Ferrari have not been able to ignore these trends, first launching the Ferrari FF
in 2011, and then adding “black magic” turbo chargers to the 488 GTB in 2015. Thankfully nothing suffered, and in fact the Ferrari offering was improved. Even Hybrid Supercars have been made with the LaFerrari and LaFerrari Aperta, both of which almost everyone agrees are class leading.
Up until now Ferrari were seen to have escaped the shift to the SUVs and electric movement, and all information regarding it was pure speculation. But now we have received confirmation from the boss himself, Sergio Marchionne. Recently at the Detroit Auto Show he made some very interesting comments which give a clear picture of what is to come.
The Ferrari SUV
The first interesting thing of note was that Ferrari will introduce an SUV, that will be aiming squarly at Lamborghini’s new 189 mph Urus. Marchionne said this will be “the fastest on the market” and will be introduced by late 2019 or 2020. A clear indication that the new model is under development and will be coming within a year or two. We will bring you all the information about that in the future.
The Ferrari EV
This is perhaps the most surprising revelation though, as Marchionne more that indicated what is to come. “If there is an electric supercar to be built, then Ferrari will be the first,” he said. “People are amazed at what Tesla did with a supercar: I’m not trying to minimize what Elon did, but I think it’s doable by all of us.”
“We do it because we have to do it,” he said. Ferraris new plan includes hybrid cars, he said, “so going from there to an electric is easy.”
Ferrari have two targets that they want to achieve. Firstly, to sustainably increase production beyond 10,000 cars without impacting model exclusivity. Second, the goal is to double the Operating Profit from 2 billion euros within four years. Both will be major achievements for Ferrari, and a first if they succeed.
But don’t worry, there is no indication that Ferrari will become a fully EV company like Tesla. Despite the slow uptake, Marchionne now recognises that Ferrari need to reinvent themselves in an auto world embracing new technology. Anyone left behind just won’t survive. Exciting times ahead.
