Up next in 10
The unveiling of the Ferrari Luce has split opinion online, with some petrolheads accusing the brand of abandoning its heritage.
Following the mixed reviews of the electric Jaguar, we ask why luxury carmakers seem to be struggling to keep up in the electric era.
What do you think? Should Ferrari pursue a new audience of influencers, or lean in to its near century of heritage?
Get more of City AM đ
đ http://www.cityam.com
X(formerly Twitter): http://twitter.com/CityAM
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cityam
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/city_am
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/cityam
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
Now, it is time to talk about Ferrari.
0:03
Their share price has rebounded slightly
0:05
after it slumped following the unveiling
0:07
of their new electric Luce model.
0:10
Designed by Johnny Ive, the bloke behind
0:12
the iPhone,
0:13
not even a papal visit. Yes, the Pope
0:16
did sit in it, could save the Ferrari
0:18
Luce from widespread online criticism.
0:22
And in my opinion, completely justified
0:25
criticism. For $640,000,
0:28
you can buy a vehicle that more
0:30
resembles a Hyundai
0:33
family sedan. There's contention around
0:35
that. Family sedan crossed with an Apple
0:37
mouse rather than a super car. It looks
0:39
like a car designed by HR. It has no
0:42
spirit. It has no character. It has
0:45
nothing going for it. Do you like it?
0:48
>> [clears throat]
0:49
>> So, does this spell trouble for the most
0:51
famous Italian car maker in the world?
0:53
Michael Hunter's here to answer that
0:55
exact question.
0:56
>> The markets are never entirely wrong.
0:58
And the reaction on the market was very,
1:00
very clear. And it's the latest emblem
1:03
that we have of these luxury car marks
1:04
really struggling with a non-petrol head
1:07
future. They know how to get Jeremy
1:10
Clarkson and your good self excited.
1:12
[laughter]
1:13
They do not know how to get Jeremy
1:14
Clarkson and your good self excited with
1:16
these new ways of doing cars. So, I
1:19
think another thing that's important, as
1:20
well as all the reaction to the design,
1:23
and it does look like an Apple mouse.
1:26
There's there's no two ways about that.
1:27
>> I wonder if you charge it on the on the
1:29
on the on the side. Like you now have to
1:31
charge your mouse on its side.
1:32
Yes, you've got to turn the car upside
1:34
down and plug it in. Yeah.
1:35
>> But it's also, again, getting lost in
1:37
some of the design stuff, I would think,
1:39
Ferrari's first five-seater. So, Ferrari
1:42
are not known for five-seater.
1:44
Their own version of the Porsche
1:45
Cayenne.
1:47
And so, for ÂŁ474,000,
1:51
you know, you're getting not a super car
1:55
that can zoom around and look amazing
1:58
and get rave reviews in all the trade
2:01
press. You're getting what amounts to,
2:03
as you say,
2:05
a a kind of runaround, a fat mom family
2:08
SUV.
2:09
>> It's the It's the very final of the
2:11
luxury {slash} performance car brands to
2:13
finally buckle and make an SUV.
2:15
>> Yes.
2:15
>> But I don't
2:16
>> Is there a single one that's held out
2:17
now?
2:18
>> Well, I don't think any of them have
2:19
been well received. I don't think any of
2:21
them I mean, I will admit this is not
2:23
entirely my home turf, but I don't think
2:27
any of them have got rave reviews.
2:29
They've all been given the kind of
2:30
reviews you've given them, haven't they?
2:31
>> It is like the designer looked at the
2:34
new woke Jaguar and thought, well,
2:37
that's the kind of market reaction we
2:38
want. I mean,
2:41
I've nothing against a runaround
2:43
efficient sustainable cheap to run car.
2:46
I mean, the Tesla Model 3, I looked this
2:48
up, in America costs $55,000, which is
2:51
less than a tenth of what this Ferrari
2:53
would cost you.
2:54
The Ferrari can go to not to 60 in 2.5
2:57
seconds.
2:58
I don't know why a runaround car would
3:00
have to do that, but fine. The Tesla
3:02
does it in 2.4 seconds. The
3:05
The Tesla has exactly the same electric
3:07
range as the Ferrari, and it costs less
3:09
than a tenth of this car. What is the
3:12
point of it?
3:13
>> Well, this is going to be a big problem
3:14
that these brands have, which is the
3:16
technology is all going to start to
3:17
equalize. And previously Ferraris, as
3:20
they've been talked about and their
3:21
engines been talked about in these
3:23
almost spiritual terms. And that was
3:24
always the old Top Gear thing, which is
3:26
when they started talking about electric
3:28
cars on Top Gear. The big thing they
3:29
said was that we've not got that engine
3:31
noise anymore. They're having to produce
3:32
it with speaker like Bose speakers
3:35
throughout the car. I I would say to the
3:37
I mean, I I do think this does look like
3:39
the Ferrari Qashqai, so I'm not going to
3:40
leap to a a full a full-blooded defense
3:43
of this sort of yeah, cross crossover
3:46
runaround half a million Ferrari. I do
3:49
think it reflects how wealth is changing
3:52
and how tastes are changing among the
3:54
ultra-wealthy. This strikes me as like
3:56
the influencer's dream car.
3:57
It's got cuz no one no one really wants
4:00
the impracticality of those Ferraris of
4:03
of of days past and all.
4:04
>> an aspirational vehicle.
4:06
>> But I But I think But I think if you've
4:07
got a million lying around, you want
4:08
that car.
4:09
>> But I think for a certain sector of the
4:11
population, I think this is aspirational
4:12
cuz it is the it is the expression of an
4:14
iPhone in car form.
4:16
>> But that that's what they're struggling
4:18
with in car in car world.
4:20
They They They're struggling to
4:22
translate top-end design for an unusual,
4:26
fancy, eye-catching product into a
4:28
utilitarian
4:30
product that more people will buy. So,
4:33
you've got that fancy top-end price tag,
4:36
but you don't have a fancy top-end look
4:38
and feel. Now, Jony Ive iPhone managed
4:40
to bridge that divide with the phone. I
4:43
would suggest, as a completely a
4:44
non-design expert, but I would suggest
4:47
that Jony Ive trick is easier to pull
4:49
off with a couple of grands' worth of
4:51
tech tops that you have in your pocket
4:53
rather than half a million dollars'
4:56
worth of tech that moves around at top
4:59
speeds around the roads of the world.
5:00
>> I I mean, Rory Sutherland is rarely
5:02
wrong about stuff.
5:04
And he said [clears throat] when the
5:05
when the work Jaguar was was unveiled,
5:07
he said, you know, Jaguar's essentially
5:10
setting fire to their entire previous
5:12
audience profile, and they are trying to
5:14
create an entirely new one. And so, out
5:17
with the old, in with the new. But it
5:18
feels like all these car companies are
5:19
completely throwing away heritage a
5:22
heritage built up over in some cases
5:24
hundreds of years. And you And you just
5:27
think like that is
5:28
a valuable brand. We were talking to um
5:31
uh a Kantar about the world's most
5:34
valuable brands. And this history behind
5:36
them is valuable.
5:37
>> But it is valuable, but it is also
5:38
history. And I think I suppose that's
5:39
the other thing that Rory Sutherland
5:40
said at the time back in October and
5:42
November 2014 about the the Jaguar Type
5:45
Zero 1 or whatever it's called was that
5:48
ultimately, if you want anyone to buy
5:50
any of these cars, there does need to be
5:53
a recognition that it's a fundamentally
5:55
different kind of wealthy person.
5:57
>> Mhm.
5:57
>> And tastes have probably quite
5:59
fundamentally changed. The question will
6:00
be can any of these brands
6:03
tow the line between selling a decent
6:05
volume of increasingly like lower volume
6:08
expensive cars to an audience who are
6:10
fundamentally different to what came
6:12
before and who writes and think about
6:14
cars.
6:14
>> It's a very difficult balance. And our
6:16
picture editor Andy on City and the
6:18
print edition [laughter]
6:20
points
6:20
out
6:22
very, very clearly that the the new and
6:25
controversial Li Chi looks
6:28
more or less exactly like the car in
6:30
dystopian sci-fi film The Demolition Man
6:34
starring Sylvester Stallone. So make of
6:36
that analogy what you
6:37
>> I've never heard of that, but Felix over
6:39
there in the corner has, who's about to
6:40
be on the podcast, so fair enough.
6:42
Um Michael, I'll let you have the last
6:43
word on that debate. So thank you very
6:45
much for coming in.
6:47
Um
6:47
we shall see how Ferrari's share price
6:51
does in the near future.
6:53
>> We'll keep a close look.
News