Today Ferrari showcased in San Francisco the partial interior of the new Ferrari Luce EV. Designed in collaboration with Jony Ive, Marc Newson and LoveFrom. 

The Name Luce meaning “Light” or “Illumination” in Italian is quite apropos. From the insertion of the Luce’s glass key fob into the center consoles magnetic cradle the yellow e-ink from the key fob transfers to the shifter and interior displays clearly and dramatically bringing the car to life. The light transfer is quite spectacular as you can see in the photos below:*

*Photos courtesy of Ferrari

The Luce has three displays as described by Ferrari below:

DISPLAYS 

The three displays in the Ferrari Luce – driver binnacle, control panel and rear control panel – have been meticulously designed for clarity and purpose. The team spent significant time considering the organisation of inputs (controls) and outputs (displays), making the user experience intuitive and easy to navigate. An understated, new custom typeface gives the interface and identity a coherent typographic voice, informed by historic Ferrari type and Italian engineering lettering. 

Brushed aluminum, glass and leather dominate the interior. From what I can tell of the photos and videos, it really is an extension of Sir Jony’s design aesthetic from Apple. Every Apple device we know and love seems to evoke that same feeling of familiarity when comparing the Luce to our collective muscle memory. I can only imagine how similar it will undoubtedly be. I for one am looking very forward to the Ferrari Luce complete reveal in May. I can only hope that they will showcase the Ferrari Luce in Bianco Avus or a similar white paint evoking the brilliant white Apple devices of Sir Jony’s past accomplishments. If not I will most certainly be playing around with the Ferrari “Tailor Made” configurator.

CarPlay will be available, but no mention of CarPlay Ultra

Below is a quote from Jony Ive in the wired article discussing the unveiling of the Ferrari Luce EV interior.

“Part of my grumpy belligerence now is I’m done working with assholes,” Ive said in his introduction. The line drew a laugh from the audience around him. “I’m so happy that we can just place creative excellence right at the center of what we’re doing.”

“Ive may wax self-deprecatingly about his salty nature, but when he started explaining the details of all the machined aluminum buttons he had ordered and approved over the course of five years, he was positively chipper. As we wandered through the exhibit, Ive happily responded to WIRED’s questions on how things were working with Ferrari.”

“It’s an important brand,” Ive said. “I like the fact that they weren’t lazy, like some other companies I know who just roll around in their success printing money.”

I guess that’s a direct dig at Apple. OUCH!!! Not sure that was completely warranted, but we can now see there was evidently some animosity leading up to his 2019 departure.